Posted on 28 Dec 2021
Chinese steelmaking raw materials fell on Monday as demand remained weak, with coking coal and coke prices tumbling more than 4%, while benchmark iron ore futures slipped after logging gains last week.
Weekly steel production at China’s major steel firms stood at 8.9 million tonnes last week, down 2.5% from a week earlier, data from Mysteel consultancy showed.
“Average daily molten iron output remained at historical lows … however, coke inventories at mills are higher than the same period in previous years,” analysts with SinoSteel Futures wrote in a note.
With the crude steel production control policy likely to be continued in the mid- and long-term, coking coal prices have further room to decline and coke demand will be hard to recover to high levels, SinoSteel Futures said.
The most actively traded coking coal futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange DJMcv1 for May delivery fell as much as 4.8% to 2,177 yuan ($341.68) a tonne before ending down 4.2% at 2,190 yuan per tonne.
Coke futures on the Dalian exchange DCJcv1 closed down 6.2% at 2,936 yuan a tonne. They shed as much as 6.8% earlier in the session.
Benchmark iron ore DCIOcv1 dropped 3.3% to 683 yuan per tonne, reversing the gains in both the futures and the spot market last Friday. Spot prices of 62% iron ore for delivery to China SH-CCN-IRNOR62 rose $2.5 to $127.5 a tonne on Friday, according to SteelHome consultancy.
Steel prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were mixed.
Steel rebar SRBcv1 for construction use slipped 4.6% to 4,307 yuan a tonne and hot rolled coils futures SHHCcv1 dived 4.5% to 4,413 yuan per tonne.
Shanghai stainless steel futures SHSScv1, for February delivery, inched 0.1% higher to 16,720 yuan a tonne.
Profits earned by China’s industrial firms rose 9% on an annual basis in November, slowing down from a 24.6% growth in October, data from the statistics bureau showed.
Source:Reuters
