Posted on 12 Jul 2022
China's daily crude steel output continued to decrease during the first ten days of July to hit a four-month low of 2.73 million tonnes/day, down by another 95,300 t/d or 3.4% from late June, Mysteel estimated, based on its regular survey among 247 blast-furnace and 85 electric-arc-furnace steel mills nationwide.
The July result was 10.1% lower compared with the same period last year, as more domestic mills conducted maintenance on their steelmaking facilities in advance in response to the losses they were suffering through the fall in finished steel prices. Meanwhile, the depressed demand from end-users in the summer off-season also dampened mills' enthusiasm for production, Mysteel Global noted.
As of July 8, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, for example, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 4,278/tonne ($638/t) including the 13% VAT, off by Yuan 109/t from the end of June.
Transactions in the physical market also slowed down in reaction to rising temperatures in most regions of China. Over July 1-10, the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's tracking came in at 152,125 t/d on average, down 15,784 t/d or 9.4% from that for late June.
Both BF and EAF mills reduced their output in early July. Mysteel's other survey showed that capacity utilization among the 247 sampled BF mills declined for the third week by 1.9 percentage points on week to a three-month low of 85.71% over July 1-7. That among the 85 EAF mills, meanwhile, slipped continuously since mid-May to average 31.67% during the same period, down another 3.92 percentage points from the prior week.
Finished stocks held by China's steel producers emptied further with the continuous decrease in mills' output. Mysteel's regular survey found that the total volume of the five major carbon steel products comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate among the 184 steelmakers sampled had declined to 6.23 million tonnes over June 30-July 6, lower by 3% on week and hitting the lowest level since late March, as reported.
Source:Mysteel Global
