In Commodity News 16/04/2015
China produced 69.48 million mt of crude steel in March, up by 12% from February’s 61.95 million mt, but down 1% from the same month last year, data released Wednesday, April 15, by the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
On a daily basis, crude steel output in March edged up 1.3% on month to 2.24 million mt, according to Platts calculations.
This has risen since December, and was the highest since September last year.
Over January-March, China’s crude steel output totaled 200.1 million mt, down 1.7% on year.
The country’s crude steel output has been falling on an yearly basis since the start of 2015.
China produced 60.25 million mt of pig iron in March, up 6.96% on month but down 2.4% on year.
Over January-March, China’s pig iron output fell 2.3% on year to 176.54 million mt.
One mill source in Hebei province’s Tangshan city said the slight increase seen in the daily crude steel output figure for March was within market expectations.
“End-user demand in northern China recovered since the second half of March due to warmer weather, and had continued growing into April,” he said, adding that better demand should lead China’s steel output to continue rising mildly in April.
Another mill source in eastern China said steel output at his mill had been fairly stable since January, and it would continue to keep production at the current level.
But he also expected China’s overall steel output to have risen marginally since March, because of an improvement in northern China’s demand and a slump in the iron ore market.
One Shanghai-based analyst said while steel mills’ profitability had improved since March, many steel mills are still incurring losses in April, which would cap potential increases in output this month.
