Posted on 15 Jun 2023
Daily crude steel output among the member mills of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) rebounded during the first 10 days of June, data from the association's latest release on June 13 showed, with the volume growing by some 135,700 tonnes/day or 6.5% from late May's average, as against the 6.7% decline in the prior period.
The member mills' latest daily output over June 1-10 stood at an average of 2.23 million tonnes/day, according to the new data. This result was still 2.5% lower on year though, CISA noted.
The rise in early June's daily output was mainly due to the fact that some steelmakers increased their production as their profit margins improved with the strengthening domestic finished steel prices, a Shanghai-based market insider said.
Mysteel's survey showed that the profit ratio among the 247 steel mills nationwide under its tracking had registered 43.72% as of June 8, higher by 10.82 percentage points on week and marking the highest since late April.
China's steel prices have shown signs of recovery in early June thanks to the positive market sentiment, bolstered by hopes of new stimulus measures from the country's central government, as reported.
For example, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market dynamics, had rebounded by Yuan 147/tonne ($20.5/t) from that on May 31 to reach Yuan 3,827/t including the 13% VAT as of June 9, according to Mysteel's assessment.
Meanwhile, better sentiment also moderately boosted speculative trading in the domestic steel market, sources said. Spot sales of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's tracking picked up by 12.2% from late May to average 159,902 t/d in early June.
Based on its latest data, CISA also estimated that China's national daily crude steel output averaged 2.92 million t/d in early June, up by 4.4% from late May.
On the other hand, higher output saw finished steel inventories held by CISA's member mills mount up by 1.2% or 183,700 tonnes from the end of May to reach 15.8 million tonnes as of June 10, yet logging a 14.8% decline from the corresponding period of last year, the CISA data showed.
Source:Mysteel Global
