Posted on 18 Jul 2023
China's crude steel output totalled 535.6 million tonnes over the first half of this year, up 1.3% from the same period last year, according to the latest data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday morning.
For June alone, China produced 91.1 million tonnes of crude steel, edging up 0.4% on year. And on a daily basis, the country's crude steel output averaged 3.04 million tonnes/day, jumping 4.5% compared with the prior month, Mysteel Global calculated based on the NBS data.
The on-month rise in China's crude steel output was mainly because some mills had either resumed operations or ramped up production in June with the further improvement in their profitability, Mysteel Global learned.
The latest NBS results were in line with Mysteel's other survey, which showed that the capacity utilization rate among 247 blast-furnace (BF) steel mills increased to 91.98% over June 23-29, up 2.32 percentage points on month, and the run rate among Mysteel's 87 sampled electric-arc-furnace (EAF) mills also jumped by 5.41 percentage points on month to 51.32%.
By end-June, about 64.07% of the 247 BF mills managed to earn some profits -- much higher than the ratio of 32.9% recorded in May. The improvement in steel mills' profitability was largely thanks to the recovery in Chinese finished steel prices, Mysteel Global noted.
For example, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,855/tonne ($538/t) including the 13% VAT as of June 30, higher by Yuan 175/t from the end of May.
However, China's spot steel transactions remain lacklustre as demand from end-users has been poor during the traditional off-season for steel consumption in summer when high temperatures and frequent rains continue to hit most regions across the country.
For June, the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's survey registered 154,830 t/d on average, down by 1,869 t/d from May.
Over January-June, China's finished steel output increased 4.4% on year to 676.6 million tonnes, and the volume for June alone reached 120 million tonnes, up 5.4% on year, according to the NBS data.
China's steel output over Jan-Jun
| Jun 2023 | Jan-Jun 2023 | ||
Volume (mln t) | YoY (%) | Volume (mln t) | YoY (%) | |
Crude steel | 91.11 | 0.4 | 535.64 | 1.3 |
Finished steel | 120.08 | 5.4 | 676.55 | 4.4 |
Pig iron | 76.98 | 0 | 451.56 | 2.7 |
Source: NBS
Source:Mysteel Global
