Posted on 16 Nov 2022
China's crude steel output decreased at a slower pace of 2.2% on year to 860.6 million tonnes over January-October, as against the on-year fall of 3.4% for the first nine months of this year, according to the latest data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on November 15.
For October alone, China produced 79.76 million tonnes of crude steel, jumping 11% on year. And the country's daily steel output averaged 2.57 million tonnes/day, reversing down 11.2% on month after having grown for two months, Mysteel Global calculated based on the NBS data.
The on-month retreat in daily output was mainly because some Chinese steel producers including both blast-furnace (BF) and electric-arc-furnace (EAF) makers either conducted maintenance on their steelmaking facilities or slowed their production pace in October, as their profit margins had been squeezed by weakened steel prices, and more mills had suffered losses again, Mysteel Global noted.
For example, the capacity utilization rate among 247 BF mills nationwide under Mysteel's survey slipped to 87.64% over October 21-27, down 1.5 percentage points compared with the end of September, and only 27.71% of the sampled mills were still profitable during the period.
Mysteel's other survey among 91 sampled BF makers across the country showed that their average loss on rebar sales was at Yuan 82/tonne ($11.6/t) last month in contrast to the small profit of Yuan 21/t they earned in September.
China's finished steel prices continued weakening last month, which was mainly blamed to lower-than-expected demand from end-users and negative sentiment in the domestic market, Mysteel Global learned.
As of October 31, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of China's steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,883/t including the 13% VAT, down by a large Yuan 287/t from end-September.
And the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's tracking registered 156,917 t/d on average in October, 23,097 t/d or 12.8% lower than the prior month.
For October alone, China's finished steel output came in at 114.8 million tonnes, higher by 11.3% on year, while production for the first 10 months totaled 1.1 billion tonnes, down 1.4% from the same period last year, according to the NBS data.
Source:Mysteel Global
