China’s exports of flat rolled steel during October totalled 2.87 MnT representing a decline of 12.8% on year or 13.8% on month, according to the latest data from China’s General Administration of Customs.The October result took the country’s total flat steel exports during this year’s first ten months to 33.1 MnT, being down 1.8% on year.
“The prices of China’s steel products are still not competitive compared with global prices, and the stronger domestic steel prices we’ve seen recently further stimulated export prices to rise,” a Shanghai-based steel exporter told Mysteel Global.
The export price for China-origin 4.75 mm hot-rolled coil reached $470/tonne FoB China currently, some $20/t higher compared with the previous month, the exporter said. This contrasts with Mysteel’s national average price for Q235 4.75mm HRC which had increased by Yuan 154/t ($22/t) from November 1 to reach Yuan 3,803/t including the 13% VAT – $543/t – as of November 26.
The prices of India- and Russia-origin HRC were much lower than the price of domestically produced hot coil, Mysteel Global noted.
“The robust domestic demand and increasing profit they’re making in their home market had moderately dampened some traders’ enthusiasm for exporting, as they opted to focus on domestic market business,” she said, adding that the export prices in South Korea and Japan still stayed low, and products from that two countries were also more attractive than Chinese.
“In the two countries, domestic steel demand was rather weak – as were domestic sales of steel-consuming products – so the Korean and Japanese mills had no compulsion to raise their export prices,” she added.
On the other hand, flat steel imports into China in October also declined 9.5% on year or by some 8.3% on month to 880,000 tonnes, the statistics showed. However, this month flat steel imports are expected to see rises. “Some import orders for hot coil were concluded in October, when the import price was really low, and those products should arrive in China this month,” the trader said.
Over January-October, China’s total imports of flat steel declined 11.5% on year to 8.3 million tonnes, according to the data.
This article has been published under article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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