The daily steel output among the member mills of the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) reversed up slightly by 9,000 t/d or 0.4% in ten days over September 11-20 to 2.15 million tonnes/day on average, and it was 1.9% higher on year, according to the latest release by the association on September 22.
This has been the first rise since late August, Mysteel Global noted, and finished steel production among the CISA member mills recovered during the period too by 2.3% from September 1-10 to 2.05 million t/d, indicating that some of them stepped up the rolling capacity utilization on the expectation of better demand in September, Mysteel Global noted.
Basing on its member mills’ operations, CISA estimated that the whole country’s daily crude steel output averaged 3.04 million t/d over September 11-20, or just 0.04% higher than the prior ten days but up 7.2% on year, and the country’s daily finished steel output up more substantially by 1.6% from the first ten days of September or up 12.5% on year to 3.79 million t/d.
CISA’s estimation differed from Mysteel’s survey among the country’s 247 blast-furnace and 71 electric-arc-furnace steel mills that showed their daily crude steel production down another 16,800 t/d or 0.6% in ten days to 2.97 million t/d on average over September 11-20.
China’s official steel production data will be released by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics on October 19.
By September 20, finished steel inventories at CISA’s member mills mounted further in ten days to 13.4 million tonnes, up another 135,900 tonnes or 1% from September 10, or 40.6% higher than that at the start of 2020.
The remaining high steel stocks and good but lower-than-expected steel consumption so far this month saw China’s domestic steel price soften, Mysteel Global noted.
China’s national price of HRB 400 20mm dia rebar, for example, hit its 2.5-month low of Yuan 3,768/tonne ($555/t) including the 13% VAT as of September 22, or down Yuan 64/t from September 10, though the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among China’s 237 traders rose to 224,431 t/d for mid-September, up 9,316 t/d or 4.3% from September 1-10, according to Mysteel’s data.
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
Photo: World Steel
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