Posted on 02 Jan 2023
Sales of carbon steel at China Steel Corp (CSC), Taiwan's top integrated steel producer headquartered in Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, rose for a second successive month in November to reach 701,593 tonnes, higher by another 65,478 tonnes or 11% from the prior month, according to the company's latest release on December 26.
The further growth in the company's carbon steel sales indicated that demand from its customers had recovered somewhat last month with the improvement in economic conditions worldwide, Mysteel Global learned.
However, CSC's November result was still lower by 97,942 tonnes or 12.2% compared with one year earlier, according to the company's available data.
Over January-November, the integrated mill's total carbon steel sales registered 7.98 million tonnes, down 855,095 tonnes or 9.7% from the first eleven months of last year.
Although the steel giant's sales volume showed another steady recovery in November, the uptick failed to reverse the losses the mill had suffered since September, Mysteel Global noted.
For November alone, the company's pre-tax losses reached TWD 2.77 billion ($90.2 million), deepening by TWD 1.32 billion from the previous month. For the first eleven months of this year, its total pre-tax profits slumped by TWD 52.2 billion or 67% on year to TWD 26.2 billion, the release showed.
The company believes that steel prices in the global steel market will recover gradually in the coming term on support of firm prices of steelmaking raw materials.
Meanwhile, the production reductions in Europe, the U.S and Asia, and expectations for a further recovery in steel demand with the optimized COVID policies in China, may also boost the growth in international steel prices, the company noted.
Such optimism had earlier prompted CSC to announce that it was hiking its list prices of major steel products such as hot-rolled coil and cold-rolled coil by TWD 500/tonne respectively on month for local sales in January, as Mysteel Global reported.
Source:Mysteel Global
