Maintenance at Anhui Changjiang to affect rolled steel output by 40,000 mt

SMM data showed that inventories of hot-rolled coils (HRC) and plates across social warehouses and steelmakers, which are used in automobiles and home appliances, increased 6.94% or 281,900 mt from September 24 in the week ended October 9 to 4.06 million mt. The stocks were 27.3% higher than the same period last year.

An SMM survey showed that 35 steelmakers in China plan to produce a total of 9.34 million mt of hot-rolled coils and plates in May, up 3.1% from the realised output of 9.06 million mt in April.

Planned output of construction steel rebar across China’s major blast furnace steelmakers in April stood roughly flat from the actual production in March, as the impact of maintenance may offset the increase in output driven by higher profits. 

Inventories of hot-rolled coils of steel sheets used to produce home appliances and cars in China continued to trend higher, hitting a new record high, as cargoes stranded at ports moved to social warehouses following logistics recovery. SMM data showed that HRC stocks across social warehouses and steelmakers stood at 5.78 million mt as of Thursday March 12, some 65.37% higher than the same period after the Lunar New Year holiday last year.

Chinese steelmakers plan to produce 9.29 million mt of hot-rolled steel in Dec, up 4.75% from the realised output in Nov

The company has an annualised capacity of 2 million mt

The maintenance starts from Nov 15

Consumers stepped up buying on concerns about lower supplies; sentiment was little affected by construction halt in Zhengzhou

Speculative buying waned as the re-escalation in US-China trade conflict grew market concerns

Aug planned output across 31 major producers of long steel in China is expected to climb 0.78% from the actual output in Jul