China’s steel exports continued to maintain their increasing trajectory in April and were recorded at 4.98 million tonnes against 4.95 mnt seen in March 2022.
Factors that supported April export volumes
Dull domestic demand: Domestic demand has been dull on account of a resurgence in Covid cases. A key steel-producing hub like Tangshan had announced a strict lockdown from the third week of March, making mills focus on exports.
CIS absence from market: The Russia-Ukraine war helped China capture a chunk of the billets exports market. With CIS players away, China serviced a substantial portion of the billets exports market, especially to Thailand. Russia and Ukraine jointly hold an export share of around 22 mnt in billets.
Competitive Chinese HRC and slab export offers: Competitive Chinese HRC offers attracted South East Asian buyers. Also, the absence of export offers from Japan and Korea kept demand active for Chinese material. Monthly average prices of Chinese HRC (SS400) rose from $880/t FOB in March 2022 to $900/t FOB in April, as per SteelMint’s analysis.
However, the Chinese Labour Day holidays and pandemic-related disruptions slightly slowed down export bookings in late April-early May which may impact the export volumes in the current month.
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