Posted on 16 Dec 2020
China’s crude steel output grew steadily up to November, gaining 5.5% on year to 961 million tonnes over January-November, or the same growth as that for the first ten months, according to the latest release from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on December 15, and it was just 35 million tonnes short of the tonnage for the whole 2019.
For November alone, the country’s crude steel output came in at 87.7 million tonnes, down 4.9% on month but still up 8% on year, with the on-year gain down 4.7 percentage points from that for October.
The country’s daily crude steel output fell to the five-month low in November, or down on month for the second month by 1.8% to 2.92 million tonnes/day, Mysteel Global calculated based on the NBS data.
The on-month decrease in last month’s steel output was mainly attributed to the growing number of maintenance works among Chinese steel mills on their steelmaking facilities as well as the frequent but short-time restriction and iron and steelmaking in some regions of China especially in the northern part in winter months during poor air quality days.
China’s finished steel output, thus, recorded a similar trajectory in November, up 10.8% on year but down 1% on month to 117 million tonnes, and over the first eleven months of 2020, the country’s finished steel production added up to 1.2 billion tonnes, or up 7% on year, according to the NBS data.
Up to November, however, China’s steel producers had maintained relatively high output level due to the steel margins and better-than-expected demand especially for flat steel both at home and abroad, Mysteel Global noted.
For November, China’s domestic steel prices both for longs and flats gained on month, with the national price of HRB 400 20mm dia rebar having surged by Yuan 256/tonne ($39/t) on month to Yuan 4,076/t on average, and that of the Q235 4.75mm HRC up Yuan 126/t on month to Yuan 4,052/t for the monthly average, both including the 13% VAT, according to Mysteel’s data.
Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com
Edited by Hongmei Li, li.hongmei@mysteel.com
Source:Mysteel Global
