China’s stainless steel output in October has registered a fall for a second straight month, decreasing 2.67% from September to 2.41 MnT. On y-o-y basis, the production rose 4.29%.
If we analyse grade-wise stainless steel output, 300-series accounted for 1.16 MnT, up 2.73% from a month ago as mills recovered from maintenance, while production of 400-series grew 6.31% to 443,000 tonnes. Production of 200-series stainless steel in China, however, dropped 13.84% to 772,000 tonnes in Oct’19, as heavy losses prompted mills to curtail or even suspend production.
From Jan-Oct’19, China’s stainless steel output stood at 24.9 MnT against 22.4 MnT in the corresponding period of previous year.
For next month i.e. Nov’19, China’s stainless steel production is expected to rebound 0.79% to 2.43 MnT with a year-over-year increase of 8.2%. This will be driven by increase in 200-series, which are likely to see production recovering 5.18% to 812,000 tonnes. Production of 300-series stainless steel is estimated to shrink 1.52% to 1.15 MnT while that of 400-series is expected to slip 0.68% to 440,000 tonnes.
In case of exports, China’s stainless steel exports dropped 14% year on year to 2.71 MnT in first nine months of 2019 whereas its imports decreased 42% to 885,000 tonnes.
Chinese stainless steel consumption growth is expected to reach 8.6% this year, up from 6.9% in 2018 whereas for 2020, China’s SS consumption growth is expected to slow to 7.2%
Leave a Reply