Posted on 23 Dec 2021
Daily crude steel production among the 247 Chinese blast-furnace and 71 electric-arc-furnace steel mills under Mysteel's survey continued to decline over the middle 10 days of December, down 6,100 tonnes/day or 0.3% from the average for early December at 2.36 million t/d, or having refreshed the lowest since Mysteel started the survey in January 2018.
The mid-December result was mainly due to the ongoing restrictions among steel mills in the northern part of China during this winter heating season and the frequent emergency curtailing measures in Tangshan in North China's Hebei to improve local air quality.
Chinese steel prices increased slightly over mid-December on support of the relatively steady demand from end-users, especially those in eastern and southern China amid the pleasant weather and lower finished steel stocks, Mysteel Global learned.
As of December 20, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar under Mysteel's assessment, for example, stood at Yuan 4,877/tonne ($765/t) including the 13% VAT, higher by Yuan 50/t from that on December 10.
Over December 11-20, the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese traders Mysteel follows averaged 175,706 t/d, just down 2,121 t/d or 1.2% from that for early December.
Total inventories of the five major steel products comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate at Chinese traders' warehouses emptied continuously, as many of them would keep their stocks at a low level for now to reduce risks amid the high steel prices and the uncertainties in market development next year, which also lent some support to the domestic steel prices, Mysteel Global noted.
Mysteel's latest weekly survey showed that total stocks of these five steel products at commercial warehouses in the 132 Chinese cities had slipped for the 10th week to an 11-month low of 14.14 million tonnes as of December 16, down by another 4.1% on week, as reported.
Source:Mysteel Global
