NBS: China's Jan-Nov rebar output falls 2.2% YoY

Production of rebar across China declined by 2.2% on year over January-November to reach 209.7 million tonnes, according to the latest statistics released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday.

For November alone, China produced around 18 million tonnes of rebar, lower by 8.8% on year, the NBS data showed. The November tonnage also decreased for the fifth consecutive month on a monthly basis, down by another 1.3% from October, Mysteel Global calculated based on the NBS data.

Behind the dip in rebar output last month was the fact that many domestic blast-furnace steelmakers further slowed their production to relieve some pressure on the supply side, market sources said.

Mysteel's survey on the rebar rolling capacity utilization among 137 Chinese steelmakers it regularly monitors was in line with the NBS result, as the run rate shed 1.3 percentage points on month to sit at 55.87% by the end of November.

Meanwhile, the 91 blast-furnace mills included in Mysteel's another survey still suffered an average loss of Yuan 71/tonne ($9.9/t) in November, though narrowing from the average loss of Yuan 136/t in the prior month, mainly due to the recovery in domestic steel prices amid better market sentiment.

As of November 30, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 4,052/t including the 13% VAT, higher by 174/t on month.

On the other hand, Chinese steelmakers' production costs persisted high last month, with Mysteel SEADEX 62% Australian Fines for example, rising by $8.15/dmt on month to $131.65/dmt CFR Qingdao by November 30.

During November, the spot trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 traders' warehouses Mysteel follows averaged 151,523 tonnes/day, down 1.6% or 2,408 t/d on month, showing the slack demand from end-users during the traditional non-peak steel consumption month.

China's total production of finished steel products amounted to 1.25 billion tonnes, climbing by 5.7% on year. Within the total, 110.4 million tonnes were produced in November, up 4.2% on year, according to NBS.

Written by Rong Zhang, zhangronga@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com