Posted on 13 Aug 2021
Daily crude steel output among China’s 318 steel mills under Mysteel’s survey continued to heads south in early August, with the tonnage lower by another 36,200 tonnes/day or 1.2% from the prior eleven days to average 2.96 million t/d over August 1-10, the lowest since late April.
The 318 surveyed mills comprise 247 blast-furnace and 71 electric-arc-furnace mills.
The result for early August indicated that more Chinese steel mills have been reining in their steel output, in line with Beijing’s insistence that steel output for 2021 must be lower than 2020. At the same time, many regions including Southwest China’s Sichuan and Guangxi provinces and South China’s Guangdong have been facing power supply shortages, forcing steelmakers in these areas to reduce capacity utilization.
As of August 5, capacity utilization among the 247 BF mills had slid for the third week to a five-week low of 85.73%, down another 1.1 percentage points on week, according to Mysteel’s data. That among the sampled 71 EAF mills also decreased for the third week by another 4.25 percentage points on week to a five-month low of 59.8%.
August is still the traditional off-season for steel consumption in China with high temperatures and heavy rains being frequent in most regions of the country. Consequently, this is the season when most Chinese steel producers conduct maintenance on their steelmaking facilities while demand from end-users remains tepid, Mysteel Global noted.
Over August 1-10, 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 178,765 t/d, up 8,025 t/d from late July but still much lower compared with the average of more than 200,000 t/d in the peak season.
China’s finished steel prices softened in early August due to Beijing’s call for stability in supplies and prices of bulk commodities on July 30. As of August 10, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of China’s steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 5,328/tonne ($822/t) including the 13% VAT, lower by Yuan 151/t from the recent high on July 30.
Source:Mysteel Global
