China exported 29.7 million tonnes over this year’s January to November period, lower by a large 17% on year, new data from China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC). But the pace of the decline slowed to 1.7 percentage points from that over the first ten months, with the supply-demand imbalance in the global market resulting in large rises in exports, Mysteel Global notes.
Flat steel exports over the first 11 months accounted for 60.8% of China’s total steel exports, Mysteel Global calculated based on the data.
In November alone, shipments of Chinese flat products abroad amounted to 2.8 million tonnes, some 14.7% higher on month or 4.6% higher on year, according to the statistics. Last month’s performance also represented the third consecutive month of on-month increases.
“What’s directly stimulating Chinese exports is the rapid climb in global steel prices, as well as the quick demand recovery,” a Shanghai-based market source said. “As of mid-December, the US Midwest hot-rolled coil (HRC) price was at a high level close to $960/t, some $200/t higher than in early November,” he added.
Chinese steel export prices are also increasing, given the strengthening global prices, with the country’s export price of SS400 4.75mm HRC assessed by Mysteel increasing for four weeks by a total $91/t to reach $642/t FOB North China’s Tianjin port as of December 18, or $21/t higher on week.
Unlike the rapid recovery in global steel demand from manufacturing sectors, the rate at which operations are resuming among steelmakers, especially blast furnace-based steelmakers, has been slow and this too has prompted prices to surge, Mysteel Global noted.
As for long products, China exported 450,000 tonnes of steel bar last month, down 24.8% on year, according to the GACC statistics. Thus, the total of longs exports over the first 11 months declined 30.6% on year to 6.3 million tonnes.
In the meantime, exports of Chinese angles and sections gained 21.9% on year to 250,000 tonnes during November, which took the total of shipments abroad over January-November to 2.6 million tonnes, being down 13.7% on year, the data showed.
China’s wire rod exports for November reached 190,000 tonnes with an uptick of 14.5% on year. This meant that total rod exports over January-November reached 1.8 million tonnes, representing a dip of 2.2% on year.
Written by Anna Wu, wub@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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