Posted on 26 Jul 2024
Daily crude steel output among the member mills of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) during the middle ten days of July continued the steady fall since mid-June, with the output lower by another 0.2% or 3,300 tonnes/day from the previous ten days to average 2.15 million t/d over July 11-20, according to the association's latest data released on Wednesday.
The mid-July's result also marked a 4.4% decline from the same period last year, CISA noted.
Market sources attributed the further fall in output to the fact that domestic steel mills conducted more maintenance work on steelmaking facilities in response to expanded losses.
This was in line with Mysteel's survey among the 247 Chinese steel producers it monitors nationwide, which showed that only about 32% of them had managed to earn money on steel sales by July 18, down 4.8 percentage points from July 11.
Based on the latest statistics, CISA also estimated the country's daily crude steel output averaged 2.83 million t/d in mid-July, nudging down by 0.1% from that over July 1-10.
Domestic steel demand remained subdued in mid-July. The spot sales of construction steel items comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's tracking shed 3.4% or 4,205 t/d from early July to average 119,489 t/d.
Lower spot sales saw the member mills' finished steel stocks mount during mid-July, with the tonnage growing by 5.8% or 899,600 tonnes from July 10 to reach 16.3 million tonnes by July 20. This volume was also up 4% on year, according to CISA.
Meanwhile, Chinese steel prices had been weighed on by jittery market sentiment and low demand during the period. Mysteel's assessment of the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, for example, sat at Yuan 3,566/tonne ($491/t) including the 13% VAT on July 19, down by Yuan 23/t from that on July 10.
Source:Mysteel Global
