Shandong kicks off provincial environmental probes

On March 11, Huang Runqiu, Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment visited Tangshan City in Hebei Province to inspect the implementation of emergency emission reduction measures for heavy pollution weather in steel enterprises.

The merger of Shandong Iron and Steel Group into Baowu Group has entered a substantive stage, and it is expected that there may be official news after CNY. The merger of Shandong Iron & Steel Group will lay a solid foundation for Baowu Group's capacity expansion in the north.

The government of Fengrun district of Tangshan, China’s top steelmaking hub, has urged local steel companies to tighten production controls between 12:00 CST June 27 and 24:00 CST June 30, in the face of unfavourable weather conditions for dispersing air pollutants.

The Chinese market is expected to see an excessive supply of nickel pig iron (NPI) in Q3, following well-balanced demand and supply by end-May, as consumption from stainless steel mills may not be strong enough to sustain a draw in high-grade NPI inventories. 

This is a roundup of China's base metals output in April 2020, from an exclusive survey of key producers by SMM analysts.

The most-traded July stainless steel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed more than 3% on Wednesday May 6, ending at 13,215 yuan/mt following an intraday high of 13,245 yuan/mt.

Last month, output of NPI in China extended its downtrend that began since November 2019, decreasing 4.46% from March to 40,200 mt Ni, some 12.25% lower than the same month a year ago, showed SMM data.

High-grade NPI accounted for 35,800 mt in Ni content, down 6.89% from January, as the COVID-19 outbreak deterred shipments of adjuvant to high-grade NPI plants. Substantial production cut at stainless steel mills in February depressed prices of high-grade NPI, which added to cost pressure at NPI producers and promoted them to reduce output. 

The first batch of output is expected in March at the earliest.

This is a roundup of China's base metals output in January 2020