Posted on 09 Aug 2023
China's finished steel exports totalled 50.89 million tonnes over January-July, jumping by 27.9% on year, according to the latest data released by China's General Administration of Customs (GACC) on August 8.
For July alone, China's steel exports topped 7.31 million tonnes, 7.9% higher on year and still at a relatively high level compared with recent years. Also, the on-year rise gave a lift to the total tonnage over the first seven months, a Beijing-based market watcher noted.
China's steel shipments abroad during July were mainly fulfilling orders signed about two months earlier, Mysteel Global noted.
Back then, Chinese steel products still enjoyed price advantages in the international steel market, winning many export opportunities for Chinese steel producers and contributing to the rise in accumulative exports over January-July, sources said, adding that the depreciation of China's Yuan meant exporters could shave US dollar-denominated offer prices and still earn Yuan profits.
In May when most export deals (for July shipment) were being negotiated, the average central parity rate of the Yuan against the US dollar was Yuan 6.9912=$1, compared with Yuan 6.7071=$1 in May 2022, according to data released by the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.
The rather feeble domestic steel market then also encouraged mills to chase export business, the analyst explained. For example, during May, the daily price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar under Mysteel's nationwide assessment averaged Yuan 3,787/tonne ($525.1/t) including the 13% VAT, dropping by 22.8% on year.
The leap in January-July exports, however, occurred partly because the result during the previous January-July 2022 period showed a hefty decline from the first seven months of 2021 of 7.5% to 39.8 million tonnes. This was doubtless as a consequence of the global economic slowdown, even though early last year the COVID pandemic was abating. Indeed, when this year's January-July period is compared with the first seven months of 2021 of 43.03 million tonnes, the size of the increase was far smaller at 18.3%, Mysteel Global notes.
Meanwhile, during this year's first seven months, China imported 4.42 million tonnes of steel products, dropping by 32.6% on year, according to the GACC's data.
Source:Mysteel Global
