★Macro★
01 ★★★ [The People's Bank of China conducted a 3-month (92-day) outright reverse repo worth 500 billion yuan today.]
The People's Bank of China conducted a 3-month (92-day) outright reverse repo worth 500 billion yuan today. As 300 billion yuan of 3-month outright reverse repos matured this month, this operation resulted in a net injection of 200 billion yuan, matching the level in July.
02 ★★ [A series of negative China-related moves by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seriously violate the important consensus reached by the two heads of state.]
A series of negative China-related moves by the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seriously violate the important consensus reached by the two heads of state and seriously undermine China's legitimate rights and interests. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce said on August 5 that China has no choice but to respond with necessary countermeasures, including: strengthening export controls on drones, their key parts, and related technologies to the US; suspending factory follow-up inspections conducted by US certification bodies on behalf of Chinese CCC-designated agencies; adding US compliance testing companies to the countermeasures list; initiating a foreign trade national security investigation into imported printing and copying office equipment; and adding six US entities to the countermeasures list, among other steps.
★Industry and Downstream★
01 ★★★ [SMM Blast Furnace Operating Rate: Increased Annual Maintenance Leads to Continued Decline in Hot Metal Production]
According to an SMM survey, as of August 5, the blast furnace operating rate at the 242 steel mills tracked by SMM stood at 89.04%, up 0.11 percentage points MoM. The capacity utilization rate of these blast furnaces was 88.80%, down 0.1 percentage point MoM. The daily average hot metal production of the sample mills stood at 2.4058 million mt, down 2,900 mt MoM.
02 ★★★ [Japan to impose additional tariffs on certain Chinese products]
Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Ministry of Finance announced that from August 8 to December 7 this year, provisional anti-dumping duties ranging from 29.2% to 55.3% will be imposed on hot-dip galvanized steel coils, plates, and strips imported from China and South Korea. Imports from China's Hong Kong and Macau regions are exempt from the duties.
★Other Hot Topics★
⭕On August 5, seventeen steel enterprises—including Sichuan Gangchen Stainless Steel Co., Ltd., Delong Steel Co., Ltd., and Qian'an Jiujiang Wire Rod Co., Ltd.—passed the acceptance review and were announced as benchmark demonstration enterprises under the steel industry's extreme energy efficiency project. To date, 79 steel enterprises have been accepted and announced on the CISA website.
⭕Industry insiders revealed that Nvidia, AMD, and major cloud service providers have extended their long-term agreements for ABF substrates through 2028, though this may still fall short of alleviating future shortages in IC substrates.
⭕ The trend of increasing Indonesia's coal supply has been established, and the total quota is expected to exceed the 600 million mt plan set at the beginning of the year. According to data from Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, in H1, Indonesia's coal production was 367 million mt, down 4.2% YoY; exports were 232 million mt, down 3.2% YoY, but the decline was smaller than expected.
⭕ In July, the land supply construction area in 50 key cities was 9.7936 million m², down 9.1% YoY and 18.0% MoM; the land transaction construction area was 8.7764 million m², down 17.2% YoY and 25.9% MoM.
⭕ China Passenger Car Association (CPCA): From July 1 to 31, retail sales of passenger cars in China reached 1.506 million units, down 18% YoY and down 6% MoM. Year-to-date retail sales totaled 10.207 million units, down 20% YoY.
