Posted on 19 Mar 2024
China's total crude steel output came in at 167.96 million tonnes over January-February, higher by 1.6% compared with the same period last year, according to the latest release by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday morning.
For the first two months of this year, China's daily crude steel output registered 2.8 million tonnes/day on average, much higher than the average of 2.18 million t/d for last December, Mysteel Global calculated based on the NBS data.
The results suggested that many Chinese steelmakers maintained their production at a relatively high level over January-February, while the domestic steel market was quiet during the Chinese New Year holiday in mid-February, Mysteel Global noted.
Over January-February, China produced 213.4 million tonnes of finished steel, up by 7.9% on year, according to the NBS data.
China's steel output for Jan-Feb.
| Jan-Feb 2024 | |
Volume (mln t) | YoY (%) | |
Crude steel | 167.96 | 1.6 |
Finished steel | 213.43 | 7.9 |
Pig iron | 140.73 | -0.6 |
Source: NBS
With the high-level output and thin demand, finished steel inventories held by both Chinese mills and traders saw a significant accumulation during the first two months.
By end February, total inventories of the five major steel products comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate under Mysteel's regular survey stood at 7.1 million tonnes, soaring by 61% from two months earlier, and the total volume at traders' warehouses in the 132 cities nationwide under Mysteel's tracking swelled by 82.6% over the two months to 28.67 million tonnes.
China's domestic steel prices weakened over January-February with high-level production against sluggish demand. As of February 29, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,983/tonne ($553/t) including the 13% VAT, lower by Yuan 91/t from the end of last December.
Source:Mysteel Global
