Posted on 21 Jan 2022
Rebar, the most dominant steel product in China, saw it production decline by 4.8% on year to 252.06 million tonnes for the whole 2021, among which 20.03 million tonnes were for December, or down more sharply by 14% on year, according to the latest data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on January 20.
Nonetheless, the country's rebar output for December recovered by 12.7% or 2.26 million tonnes on month and marked a four-month high, Mysteel Global noted from the NBS data, as many Chinese steel producers had resumed production last month as they were almost certain that they'd be able to meet Beijing's directive for lower crude steel output for 2021.
Meanwhile, for December alone, rebar output accounted for 17.6% of China's total finished steel monthly output at 113.55 million tonnes, or 18.9% of the country's total finished steel output at 1.34 billion tonnes for 2021, the NBS data showed.
For 2021, China's fixed asset investment (FAI) gained by 4.9% on year to Yuan 54.5 trillion ($8.6 trillion), and among the total, the funding in the property market rose by 4.4% on year to Yuan 14.8 trillion, and that in the infrastructure sector showed an uptick of 0.4% on year, as reported.
Mysteel's survey among the 91 Chinese blast-furnace steel producers showed that their rebar profits averaged Yuan 272/t in 2021, surging by Yuan 192/t on year, largely thanks to the increasing steel prices despite the higher raw materials costs.
For example, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar under Mysteel's assessment averaged Yuan 5,087/t including the 13% VAT during 2021, or spiking by Yuan 1,258/t on year. On the other hand, Mysteel SEADEX 62% Australian Fines grew by $50.3/dmt on year to $158.8/dmt CFR Qingdao on average for 2021.
Source:Mysteel Global
