Posted on 16 Jul 2024
China's crude steel output for the first half of this year totaled 530.6 million tonnes, lower by 1.1% compared with the same period last year, according to the latest release by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday morning.
The on-year fall slowed further as against the 1.4% decrease for the first five months of this year, as the country's crude steel output for June witnessed a slight on-year rise of 0.2% to reach 91.6 million tonnes, the NBS data showed.
On a daily basis, the country's crude steel output averaged 3.05 million tonnes/day last month, up by another 1.9% from the average for May, Mysteel Global calculated based on the NBS data.
The continuous on-month rise was mainly due to the fact that many integrated steelmakers in China maintained their production at a relatively high level in June, and the capacity utilization among the 247 blast furnace mills under Mysteel's weekly tracking reached 89.13% by end-June, still higher by 0.96 percentage point on month though it retreated somewhat compared with the recent high of 89.76% over the prior week.
On the other hand, however, China's finished steel prices lost ground in June, as demand from end-users was depressed by high temperatures and frequent rainfalls in most regions of China in summer, Mysteel Global noted.
As of June 28, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,626/tonne ($499/t) including the 13% VAT, sliding by Yuan 204/t from the end of May.
Last month, the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's regular survey averaged 119,412 tonnes/day, thinning by a marked 13,399 t/d or 10.1% from that for May.
China's finished steel output maintained an on-year growth of 3.2% to reach 125.6 million tonnes in June, taking the total output for the first six months to 701 million tonnes, increasing by 2.8% on year, according to the NBS statistics.
China's steel output for Jan-Jun
| Jun 2024 | Jan-Jun 2024 | ||
Volume (mln t) | YoY (%) | Volume (mln t) | YoY (%) | |
Crude steel | 91.61 | 0.2 | 530.57 | -1.1 |
Finished steel | 125.55 | 3.2 | 701.02 | 2.8 |
Pig iron | 74.49 | -3.3 | 435.62 | -3.6 |
Source: NBS
Source:Mysteel Global
