CISA: Member mills' steel output down 0.9% in early Aug

Daily crude steel output among the member mills of the China Iron and steel Association (CISA) reversed down over August 1-10 after growths over July 11-31, with the volume down 19,000 tonnes/day or 0.87% from July 21-31 to 2.15 million t/d, though the decline was mainly due to the small variation in the sample size, according to an association official.

The decline was mainly due to the fact that the sample size was down by one, otherwise, the daily crude steel output in the first ten days of August still grew by 0.12% from July 21-31, he explained. Hebei Zongheng Iron & Steel Co. has been removed from the survey starting August due to its closure as part of a merger and relocation plan, Mysteel Global understands.

The output in August 1-10 also grew 5.1% on year, indicating that CISA's steel mills had been maintaining high steel production too on domestic steel price rises since the end of July and better demand starting this month.

Mysteel's daily survey among the country's 237 traders did show that the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil averaged 229,219 t/d over August 1-10, up 14,152 t/d or 6.6% from the last eleven days of July.

Finished steel inventories at CISA's member mills, on higher production, reversed up to 14 million tonnes as of August 10, up 6.6% from July 31 or 46.8% higher than the start of 2020, according to CISA data, which indicates that the domestic steel prices are still under pressure.

As of August 10, China's national price of HRB 400 20mm dia rebar was assessed at Yuan 3,848/tonne ($553/t) including the 13% VAT, up Yuan 43/t from July 31 but having ebbed from the 7.5-month high of Yuan 3,865/t on August 6, according to Mysteel's data.

Basing on its statistics, CISA estimated China's nationwide total crude steel production averaged 2.99 million t/d over August 1-10, down 0.5% from July 21-31, but up 5.8% on year.

Mysteel's survey among a larger sample of 318 steel producers including 247 blast-furnace and 71 electric-arc-furnace steel mills suggested a similar trend with their daily crude steel output rising further over August 1-10 to 2.98 million t/d, up another 23,000 t/d or 0.8% from late July, or refreshing the all-time high since Mysteel commenced the survey in January 2018.

This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.