CISA: Members' late March daily steel output rises further

Daily crude steel output among the member mills of the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) increased further but at a slower pace over March 21-31, up just 0.3% or 7,600 tonnes/day from the previous 10 days to 2.26 million t/d, as against the 4.7% jump in the prior period, according to the association's release on April 4.

Behind the slowdown in daily output growth was some blast-furnace (BF) mills reined in their production lately when they lost the healthy profit margins they had previously enjoyed and were almost break-even on steel sales, sources explained.

Based on its member mills' performance, CISA estimated China's national daily crude steel output to edge up by 0.2% from mid-March to 2.74 million t/d on average during the last 11 days of March.

This matched the findings of Mysteel's survey among the 334 Chinese steelmakers it tracks regularly which showed these mills' daily crude steel output averaged 3.05 million t/d in late March, climbing 2.1% from the average over March 11-20.

The 334 surveyed steel producers include 247 BF and 87 electric-arc-furnace makers, Mysteel Global notes.

Despite the higher output, total finished steel stocks at CISA's member mills reversed down by 9% or 1.7 million tonnes from March 20 to 17.3 million tonnes as of March 31. The tonnage was still 3.8% higher on year though, the CISA data showed.

China's domestic steel prices showed a V-shaped trajectory in late March, with the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, for example, losing Yuan 57/tonne ($8.3/t) from March 20 to Yuan 4,292/t including the 13% VAT by March 31, according to Mysteel's assessment.

On the other hand, Chinese steel market saw spot sales stay largely stable during late March, as the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's tracking averaged 165,807 t/d over March 21-31, as against the 166,201 t/d for mid-March.

Written by Rong Zhang, zhangronga@mysteel.com
Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com

Note: This article has been written in accordance with Mysteel Global and Steelmint.