Posted on 23 Mar 2022
China's rebar production over January-February fell significantly by 13.8% on year to 34.8 million tonnes, steeper than the 4.8% on-year decline for the whole of 2021, new data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.
For the first two months, China churned out 196.7 million tonnes of finished steel products, lower by 6% on year. Rebar accounted for 17.7% of the country's total finished steel output and maintained its position as the top steel product, Mysteel Global calculated based on the NBS data.
In the January-February period, many domestic steel mills had conducted maintenance or suspended operations due to the stalled market during the Chinese New Year holiday over January 31-February 6. In addition, mills in North China's Shanxi and Hebei, Central China's Henan, and East China's Shandong were placed on production curtailment to improve air quality while the Winter Olympic Games were held in and around Beijing over February 4-20.
China's fixed asset investment (FAI) grew 12.2% on year over January-February to Yuan 5.1 trillion ($798 billion), among which, that in the property market reached Yuan 1.4 trillion, up 3.7% on year, while the funding for infrastructure projects increased by 8.1% on year, as reported.
China's national HRB400E 20mm rebar price, an indicator of the domestic steel market mood, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 4,868/tonne including the 13% VAT as of February 28, or up Yuan 142/t from that on December 31, which partly sourced some support from the firm raw materials prices. For example, Mysteel SEADEX 62% Australian Fines rose by $18.55/dmt during the same period to $138.2/dmt by February 28.
Over the past two months however, steel demand had recovered at a slower pace than market insiders had expected, as their tight liquidity led many end-users to delay restarting business after the holiday break, sources pointed out.
Mysteel's survey among the 237 Chinese steel traders it checks showed that their spot trading of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil averaged just 100,294 tonnes/day over February 14-28 when Mysteel resumed its daily tracking.
Source:Mysteel Global
