Posted on 09 Mar 2022
Daily crude steel production among the member mills of the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) rebounded by 9.4% or 178,900 tonnes/day from mid-February to average 2.08 million t/d over February 21-28, the association's release showed.
Based on its member mills' performance, CISA estimated the country's daily crude steel output at 2.69 million t/d for the last eight days of February, or up 7.7% from February 11-20.
Mysteel's survey among a larger group of 247 blast-furnace and 71 electric-arc-furnace mills matched CISA's estimation, as their daily crude steel output averaged 2.52 million t/d during late February, rising by 6.8% or 160,000 t/d from the prior ten days' average, as reported.
For the whole month of February, though, daily crude steel output among CISA's member mills dipped by 1.5% on month and 13.4% lower on year to reach 1.96 million t/d on average. The first week of February was the Chinese New Year holiday when many CISA mills, especially EAF producers, would have reduced production, Mysteel Global notes.
Chinese steel prices waned further in late February due to the slower recovery in demand than expected. The country's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar for example, fell by Yuan 54/tonne ($8.5/t) from that on February 18 to reach Yuan 4,868/t including the 13% VAT as of February 28.
The spot trading of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 domestic steel traders Mysteel samples averaged 121,890 t/d in late February, higher than the 74,378 t/d over February 14-18. However, this volume was way below market expectations as some end-users had still not restarted their work due to the tight liquidity, according to sources.
By February 28, finished steel stocks at the association's member mills decreased by 4.8% from February 20 to settle at 16.1 million tonnes, though it had surged by 42.5% from the start of 2022, CISA's data showed.
Source:Mysteel Global
