China’s rebar production declined by 13.8% on year during January-August to reach 155.4 million tonnes, according to new data released by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics. For August alone, bar output also slipped by 5.8% on year to 19.3 million tonnes, though the total was higher by 12.4% on month.
The on-month rise in rebar output largely reflected the fact that some Chinese steel mills, especially blast-furnace mills, had resumed production or ramped up output after earlier production curbs, as reported.
Over the past eight months, the country’s fixed asset investment grew 5.8% on year to about Yuan 36.7 trillion ($5.2 trillion), as reported. Within this, funding in the property market dropped 7.4% on year to Yuan 9.1 trillion, while that for infrastructure rose 8.3% on year.
Last month, the profits on rebar sales earned by the 91 Chinese BF steel mills Mysteel monitors regularly averaged Yuan 41/t, as against the average loss of Yuan 86/t in the prior month. This was chiefly attributed to the recovery in finished steel prices, together with the decline in mills’ production costs.
China’s national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar for example, was assessed by Mysteel at an average of Yuan 4,262/t including the 13% VAT in August, or higher by Yuan 123/t from July, while Mysteel SEADEX 62% Australian Fines decreased by $2.4/dmt over the same period to average $104.5/dmt.
On the other hand, Chinese steel consumption was lackluster last month amid scorching temperatures in many parts of the country. Mysteel’s survey among the 237 steel trading houses it checks nationwide showed that their spot trading of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil averaged just 147,431 tonnes/day last month, down 6,759 t/d or 4.4% on month.
Over January-August, China produced 884.6 million tonnes of finished steel products, dipping 4.3% on year, among which 108.3 million tonnes were for August alone, or down 1.5% on year, the NBS data showed.
Written by Rong Zhang, zhangronga@mysteel.com
Edited by Zhenqi Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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