Posted on 16 Mar 2022
China's crude steel output posted a significant fall of 10% on year to about 158 million tonnes over January-February, according to the latest data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics on March 15.
For the first two months of 2022, China's daily crude steel output came in at 2.68 million tonnes/day on average, down 3.7% from that for last December, Mysteel Global calculated based on the NBS data.
China's lower steel output over January-February was partly due to the fact that many domestic steel producers conducted maintenance or halted production amid the quiet market during the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday over January 31-February 6, Mysteel Global noted.
Besides, production of mills in North China's Shanxi and Hebei, Central China's Henan, and East China's Shandong was still under restriction in February when the Winter Olympic Games was held in and around Beijing over February 4-20, as reported.
Over January-February, China's finished steel output reached 196.7 million tonnes, down 6% on year, according to the NBS data.
Chinese steel prices witnessed a short-lived increase after the CNY holiday break on support of lower output and relatively low-level stocks held by both steel mills and traders, while the prices returned to the downtrend in the second half of February as lower-than-expected demand largely dampened the market sentiment, Mysteel Global noted.
For example, China's national average price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 4,868/tonne ($763/t) including the 13% VAT as of February 28, up Yuan 51/t from the end of January, but it was Yuan 164/t lower than the recent high on February 11.
Although end-users had gradually resumed work after the CNY holiday, the recovery in demand was slower than the market expectation due to their tight cash flows, Mysteel Global learned.
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 only averaged 100,294 t/d over February 14-28 when Mysteel resumed its survey after the CNY holiday, lower by 4,609 t/d or 4.4% from the average for January.
Source:Mysteel Global
