Posted on 08 Apr 2022
Daily crude steel output among the member mills of the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) grew further over March 21-31, rising by 5.4% or 110,800 tonnes/day from the prior ten days to 2.16 million t/d on average, according to the association's release on April 7.
Based on its member mills' performance, CISA estimated China's national daily crude steel output at 2.79 million t/d in late March, up 4.9% from March 11-20, according to the association's new data. This matched the results of Mysteel's survey among the 318 Chinese steel mills it tracks regularly, which showed their daily crude steel output averaged 2.78 million t/d in the last ten days in March, or up 2.1% from the average in mid-March.
The 318 surveyed producers comprise 247 blast-furnace (BF) and 71 electric-arc-furnace (EAF) mills, Mysteel Global notes.
Despite the higher output, finished steel stocks at CISA's member mills declined by nearly 3% or 504,900 tonnes from March 20 to 16.6 million tonnes as of March 31. However, this result was 13% or 1.9 million tonnes higher on year, the CISA data showed.
"In March this year, the mills' pace of destocking was obviously slower than during the same period last year," CISA noted, adding that whether this slowdown is due to the recent COVID-19 outbreaks, or because demand has not yet picked up, "requires careful attention."
Mysteel's other survey among the 237 Chinese trading houses it tracks showed that their daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil averaged just 167,670 t/d in March, well below the average of 205,358 t/d in March last year.
For the whole month of March, daily crude steel output among CISA's member mills increased by 5.2% on month to 2.06 million t/d on average, according to the release.
Chinese domestic steel prices had moved up during late March, mainly supported by high raw materials prices and expectations for better demand in the future, sources said.
As of March 31, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar strengthened by Yuan 121/tonne ($19/t) from March 18 to Yuan 5,076/t including the 13% VAT, and Mysteel SEADEX 62% Australian Fines index for iron ore gained by $6.45/dmt to $157.7/dmt CFR Qingdao during the same period.
Source:Mysteel Global
