NBS: China's 2023 crude steel output largely stable on year

For December alone, China produced 67.44 million tonnes of crude steel, falling by 14.9% on year, the NBS data showed, while the daily crude steel output averaged 2.18 milllion tonnes/day, lower by 14.2% on month, Mysteel Global calculated based on the NBS data.

The December results were mainly due to the fact that more Chinese steelmakers conducted maintenance on their steelmaking facilities or slowed their production pace in the past month when steel demand from end-users was dull during the traditional off-season for steel consumption, Mysteel Global learned.

Last month, capacity utilization among the 247 Chinese blast furnace mills under Mysteel's regular tracking decreased steadily to 82.75% over December 22-28, down 4.88 percentage points from one month earlier.

Meanwhile, domestic mills' profit margins had been squeezed by the high-level production costs, and more steelmakers in China had operated at a loss in December last year, which also persuaded them to slow their production pace.

Mysteel's other survey showed that by end December 2023, the profit ratio among the 247 BF mills under its tracking slipped to 28.14%, down by a marked 11.25 percentage points from the previous month.

China's domestic steel prices kept rangebound last month, while prices of major steelmaking raw materials increased significantly, lifting production costs for Chinese steel mills, Mysteel Global noted.

For example, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 4,074/tonne ($566/t) including the 13% VAT as of December 29 2023, edged up Yuan 22/t from the end of last November, while Mysteel SEADEX 62% Australian Fines index for iron ore jumped by $8.9/dmt during the same period to reach $140.55/dmt CFR Qingdao.

Last month, China's production of finished steel registered 108.5 million tonnes, up by 1.5% on year and taking the total output for full-year 2023 to 1.36 billion tonnes, higher by 5.2% on year, according to the NBS data.

China's steel output for 2023

Source: NBS

Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com