Posted on 14 Jul 2023
China's total steel exports increased by 31.3% on-year to reach 43.58 million tonnes during the first half of 2023, according to the latest data released by China's General Administration of Customs (GACC) on July 13.
For June alone, however, steel exports declined both on-month and on-year, with the tonnage reaching 7.51 million tonnes, lower by 10% from May and by a tiny 0.6% from June 2022, the Customs data showed.
The larger on-month loss was attributed to the fact that overseas buyers had earlier concluded deals for May delivery sufficient for their needs and so reduced their purchases of China-origin steel products for June shipment, a Beijing-based market watcher commented.
China's steel shipments abroad during June were mainly fulfilling orders signed about two months earlier, Mysteel Global noted.
Despite the on-month slide in June, China's steel exports last month were still at a relatively high level compared with recent years, which also provided some support to the total tonnage in the first six months, the analyst added.
The price advantages generally enjoyed by Chinese steel products this year remained the major reason for the rise in accumulative exports over the six months, Mysteel Global learned.
Besides, Chinese steel producers were also eager to secure export trading opportunities considering the relatively feeble domestic steel market, an industry watcher noted.
For example, during April the daily price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar under Mysteel's nationwide assessment averaged Yuan 4,058/tonne ($566/t) including the 13% VAT, dropping by 20.5% on year.
During the same month, the daily spot trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's tracking was also lower by 4.1% from April 2022 at 163,552 tonnes/day.
In addition, during this year's first six months, China imported just 3.74 million tonnes of steel products, dropping by 35.2% on year, according to the GACC's data.
Source:Mysteel Global
