Overseas Steel Mills Actively Resume Work and Pay Attention to Output Rebound

SHANGHAI, Feb 10 (SMM) - Overseas steel mills actively resumed work amid strong global steel prices and improving economic environment. According to the latest research of SMM, the daily pig iron output of steel mills that resumed work since January is expected to reach 50,000 mt.

In terms of European regions , 1. A 2,200 cubic meter blast furnace in Europe resumed the production in early January. 2. Swedish steel producer SSAB stated that it restarted a blast furnace in Finland with an annual capacity of 1.3 million mt in early January. 3. A 3,000 cubic meter blast furnace in Spain resumed the production during the Chinese New Year holiday.

From the perspective of the Asian region , 1. Japan resumed the production of a 5,000 cubic meter blast furnace in mid-January.

In the follow-up stage, it is expected that there will still be a certain increase in pig iron output in Asia . Japan still has plans to resume the production in March, and pig iron output is expected to increase 10,000-15,000 mt. Vietnam will resume the production of 3 blast furnaces, with an average daily pig iron output of 10,000 mt.

With the active resumption of overseas blast furnace, the supply-demand mismatch will gradually smooth out and thus overseas steel prices may return to normal level. The exports will be concentrated in February-April.

SMM believes that the resumption of overseas steel mills will gradually form a certain supply pressure, and global steel prices will stop rising amid supply surplus.