Posted on 08 Dec 2022
China's steel exports totaled 61.95 million tonnes over January-November, posting a tiny increase of 0.4% on year as against the 1.8% on-year fall for the first 10 months, according to the latest data released by China's General Administration of Customs (GACC) on December 7.
The increase of total steel exports came from the rise in November which saw steel exports reach 5.59 million tonnes, gaining 406,000 tonnes or 7.8% from the previous month, the Customs data showed.
The on-month increase was mainly attributed to orders signed two months earlier, when global steel demand had recovered slightly and orders from South Korea increased.
In early September, a massive typhoon forced several South Korean steelmakers to halt production, impacting the country's steel supply and providing trading opportunities for Chinese exporters, as Mysteel Global reported.
Meanwhile, the value of Chinese shipments abroad last month also improved slightly, as the weakening Chinese Yuan against the US dollar during November lent some support to Chinese steel exports. Exporters could lower their dollar-denominated offer prices and still generate the same amount in Yuan, enabling Chinese steel to become more competitive in the international steel market.
By mid-November, hot-rolled coil orders from the Middle East, Africa and India had all picked up modestly, a leading exporter in Hangzhou said.
Furthermore, the series of optimization policies introduced by the Chinese government in November to ease the impact of COVID cases had greatly boosted sentiment among steel traders handling both imports and exports.
Going forward however, China's steel export business still faces many challenges as overseas steel demand has yet to witness any strong upward momentum amid high inflation around the world and the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, market sources predicted.
Apart from this, the price competitiveness of Indian steel in global markets may gradually improve and hit Chinese steel in the future, after the Indian government had announced the removal of additional export duties on certain steel items from November 18, as Mysteel Global reported.
For imports, China imported 752,000 tonnes of steel products in November, lower by 20,000 tonnes or 2.6% from the total for October. Over January-November, total steel imports reached 9.87 million tonnes, lower by 3.4 million tonnes or 25.6% from the same period last year, according to the GACC's statistics.
Source:Mysteel Global
