Posted on 26 Dec 2024
Daily crude steel output among the member mills of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) hit a three-month low over December 11-20, according to the association's December 24 release. Daily output during the middle ten days of December slipped by another 2.3% or 47,000 tonnes/day from early December to average 1.98 million t/d, nudging down by 0.1% from the same period last year.
Based on the statistics of its member mills, CISA estimated that the country's daily crude steel output averaged 2.51 million t/d during mid-December, lower by 2.3% from the prior ten-day period.
More steelmakers had idled their blast furnaces for annual overhauls during mid-December, and this was largely to blame for the further reduction in daily steel output, market insiders explained.
CISA noted that member mills in all regions except Southwest and Northeast China posted declines in daily crude steel output during this ten-day period, particularly those in Northwest China where the daily output slumped by 14.3% from early December.
Meanwhile, finished steel stocks held by member mills had mounted further by 3.2% or 460,000 tonnes from December 10 to sit at 14.64 million tonnes as of December 20, according to CISA's data, chiefly due to the seasonal contraction in demand from end-users. On a yearly basis, the inventories the mills were holding were still lower by 2.5% from the corresponding period in 2023, however.
As such, the daily trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses regularly surveyed by Mysteel across the country eased by 4.9% or 5,654 t/d from early December to average a mere 109,373 t/d in mid-December.
Regarding China's steel prices over the same mid-December period, the country's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,484/tonne ($477/t) and including the 13% VAT on December 20, falling by Yuan 37/t from ten days earlier.
Source:Mysteel Global
