Posted on 24 Nov 2022
Sales of carbon steel at China Steel Corp (CSC), Taiwan's top integrated steel producer headquartered in Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, reversed up in October to 636,115 tonnes, higher by 65,896 tonnes or 11.6% on month after the sharp fall over the prior month, according to the company's release on November 21.
Despite the recovery in October sales, CSC's carbon steel sales still stayed at a low level, with the volume down 145,882 tonnes or 18.7% on year, according to the company's available data, as steel demand in both home and overseas markets had not seen any substantial recovery.
The integrated mill continued to lose money in October due to its low-level steel sales and higher production costs, with the pre-tax losses reaching TWD 1.45 billion ($46.5 million), deepening by TWD 37.6 million from the previous month, according to the company release.
For the first 10 months of this year, CSC's total carbon steel sales were reported at 7.28 million tonnes, down by 757,152 tonnes or 9.4% from the same period last year. And its total pre-tax profits decreased to TWD 29 billion against the TWD 30.45 billion for the first three quarters, slumping TWD 41.6 billion or 59% on year, the release showed.
However, CSC is not too pessimistic about the near-term steel market outlook, which led the company to continue holding its list prices of major steel products for sales over November and December, Mysteel Global noted.
CSC believes that steel demand may recover in the first quarter of 2023 with stable demand from North America and other emerging markets in the world, and also with better-than-expected demand from auto manufactures in Asia, though global steel market fundamentals have yet to see any significant improvement by now.
Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve may slow down the pace of interest rate hikes as the country's Consumer Price Index rose less than expected in October, which may help commodity prices recover, coupled with other countermeasures introduced in many countries to high inflations and economic recession, as reported.
Source:Mysteel Global
