Posted on 16 May 2022
During the first 10 days of May, the inclines in daily crude steel output among member mills of China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) since mid-March finally came to an end, as the data from the association's new release on May 12 suggested, with their daily output declining 53,500 tonnes/day from late April's average.
The member mills' latest daily output in early May averaged 2.31 million t/d, or down 2.3% in 10 days against the 5.5% rise over April 21-30, and it was also 4.7% lower on year, according to CISA.
CISA does not disclose the specific number of its member mills, while most are large- and medium-sized steelmakers, Mysteel Global notes.
Meanwhile, Chinese steel demand remained sullen in early May, which also partly subdued steelmakers' enthusiasm for lifting production, sources said.
Mysteel's survey among 237 Chinese trading houses showed the daily trading volume of construction steel including rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil averaged 153,083 t/d over May 1-10, down 6.5% from that for late April, or plunging 49.7% on year.
As of May 10, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of the domestic steel market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 4,969/tonne ($730/t) including the 13% VAT, falling Yuan 122/t from April 29.
Finished steel inventories held by CISA's member mills reversed up 659,800 tonnes or 3.7% from the end of April to 18.7 million tonnes as of May 10, or higher by 27.7% from the same period of last year.
And based on its members' output, CISA estimated China's national daily crude steel output averaged 3.07 million t/d over May 1-10, down 1.7% from late April.
Source:Mysteel Global
