Posted on 17 Jan 2023
During the first 10 days of January, the continuous declines in daily crude steel output among the member mills of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) that began in early December finally came to an end, new data released by the association on January 15 shows, as some blast furnaces (BFs) among these mills had been brought back on stream after profit margins had improved, according to an industry watcher.
The member mills' latest daily output in early January averaged 1.93 million tonnes/day, or up 0.5% or 9,800 t/d from late December's average, the CISA data showed. This was still 2.1% lower on year, though.
In contrast, CISA estimated China's national daily crude steel output averaged 2.41 million t/d over January 1-10, inching down by 0.01% from late December.
CISA's projection matched Mysteel's survey among a larger group of 332 Chinese steelmakers including 247 BF and 85 electric-arc-furnace mills, as their daily crude steel output over January 1-10 averaged 2.6 million t/d, or down 3.9% or 104,500 t/d from the average volume during the prior 11 days.
As of January 10, finished steel inventories held by CISA's member mills had mounted by a large 14% or 1.8 million tonnes from the end of December to 14.9 million tonnes, or higher by 15.2% from the same period last year.
Chinese steel demand appeared sullen in early January, as the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's tracking averaged 83,850 t/d over January 1-10. The represented a marked decline of 28,258 t/d or 25.2% from late December.
Meanwhile, domestic steel prices continued trending upward over the same period, propelled upwards by the mills' high production costs. For example, the country's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar was assessed by Mysteel at a 4.5-month high of Yuan 4,229/tonne ($631/t) including the 13% VAT on January 10, climbing by Yuan 65/t from that on December 30.
Source:Mysteel Global
