Posted on 20 Sep 2024
Crude steel production among China's top ten steelmaking provinces and autonomous regions amounted to 498.25 million tonnes over January-August, slipping by 2.11% on year, with seven out of the ten steel centres showing on-year declines in output and the other three enjoying gains, according to the latest data from the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
For August alone, crude steel output among these top ten bases fell by a larger 10.58% on year to 55.29 million tonnes, with nine recording on-year declines, the NBS data showed.
With August being an off month for steel consumption in China, the decrease in finished steel prices and expanded losses forced many steel mills in these major steelmaking regions to slow their pace of production, Mysteel Global learned.
As of August 22, the profit ratio among the 247 Chinese blast furnaces mills under Mysteel's tracking recorded just 1.3%, marking the lowest level since Mysteel began keeping records in August 2012. The index subsequently recovered to 3.9% by August 30, though this was still 47.18 percentage points lower compared with the level on the same day last year.
In August, the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 traders under Mysteel's tracking averaged 110,898 tonnes/day, dropping by 23.36% from August last year.
However, some provinces did record on-year rises in their steel output in August, including South China's Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, with the increases mainly driven by the operations of new BFs or new projects of local steelmakers, as reported.
Table-1 Jan-Aug steel output among China's top 10 steel-producing hubs
Ranking | Province/Autonomous Region | Volume (mln t) | Y-o-Y (%) |
1 | Hebei | 143.99 | -6.44 |
2 | Jiangsu | 81.77 | -3.95 |
3 | Shandong | 50.15 | -1.63 |
4 | Liaoning | 47.37 | -5.03 |
5 | Shanxi | 41.01 | -10.71 |
6 | Guangxi | 31.57 | 16.84 |
7 | Guangdong | 28.18 | 15.16 |
8 | Fujian | 25.29 | 17.52 |
9 | Anhui | 24.96 | -4.15 |
10 | Hubei | 23.96 | -0.62 |
Total |
| 498.25 | -2.11 |
Source: NBS
Table-2 Aug steel output among China's top 10 steel-producing hubs
Ranking | Province/Autonomous Region | Volume (mln t) | Y-o-Y (%) |
1 | Hebei | 14.89 | -17.92 |
2 | Jiangsu | 9.35 | -11.96 |
3 | Shandong | 5.74 | -11.69 |
4 | Liaoning | 5.65 | -0.70 |
5 | Shanxi | 4.66 | -13.54 |
6 | Guangxi | 3.92 | 10.11 |
7 | Guangdong | 3.02 | -3.82 |
8 | Anhui | 2.86 | -12.27 |
9 | Hubei | 2.61 | -9.69 |
10 | Fujian | 2.59 | -1.89 |
Total |
| 55.29 | -10.58 |
Source: NBS
Source:Mysteel Global
