Posted on 27 Jul 2022
After six successive weeks of declines, rebar production among Mysteel's 137 sampled steel mills across China totalled 2.3 million tonnes during July 14-20, the lowest since Mysteel commenced this production survey on February 27 2015.
The data showed that rebar output declined at a faster pace by 6.2% or 153,200 tonnes on week last week, as against the 3.5% or 90,000 tonnes fall in the prior week. Survey respondents pointed out that the fall occurred chiefly because integrated steelmakers continued conducting maintenance work and reining in their production in order to reduce their heavy losses.
Steel producers in all key regions except Central China posted on-week drops in their rebar output, and those in East and North China witnessed significant slides in production, the survey found.
Over the survey period, the average capacity utilization rate of the sampled rebar rolling mills shrank for the sixth week too, dipping by another 3.4 percentage points on week to a record low of 50.5%. The data also show the operational rate slid 1.6 percentage points on week to 42.6%.
The lower output saw rebar inventories at both the 137 surveyed mills and at commercial warehouses in the 35 cities Mysteel follows decrease further, with the former emptying for the fourth consecutive week, down 9.6% or 299,100 tonnes on week to 2.8 million tonnes as of July 20, touching a 5.5-month low, and the latter dwindling for the fifth week, down 6.1% or 444,900 tonnes to 6.8 million tonnes by July 21, also a 5.5-month low.
As of July 25, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of the country's steel-market dynamics, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 4,075/tonne ($604/t) including the 13% VAT, having rallied by Yuan 67/t on week. Sources said this was mainly thanks to the improved sentiment as the mismatch between steel supply and demand had eased moderately.
Spot sales of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 steel trading houses under Mysteel's tracking had also recovered by 13,699 tonnes/day or 9.6% on week to 157,017 t/d on average over July 19-25.
Source:Mysteel Global
