I. Overall situation of steel import and export
China exported 57.518 million tons of steel in the first 10 months of 2021, up 29.5 percent year-on-year, customs data showed. During the same period, the cumulative import of steel 11.843 million tons, down 30.3% year on year; A total of 10.725 million tons of billets were imported, down 32.0% year on year. In the first 10 months of 2021, China’s net export of crude steel was 36.862 million tons, much higher than that in 2020, but at the same level as the same period in 2019.
Ii. Steel exports
In October, China exported 4.497 million tons of steel, down 423,000 tons or 8.6% from the previous month, down for the fourth consecutive month, and the monthly export volume hit a new low in 11 months. The details are as follows:
The price of most export items has been reduced. China’s steel exports are still dominated by plates. In October, the export of plates was 3.079 million tons, down 378,000 tons from the previous month, accounting for nearly 90% of the decrease in exports in that month. The proportion of exports also dropped from the peak of 72.4% in June to the current 68.5%. From the subdivision of varieties, the majority of varieties compared to the amount of price reduction, compared to the amount of price. Among them, the export volume of coated panel in October decreased by 51,000 tons month-on-month to 1.23 million tons, accounting for 27.4% of the total export volume. Hot rolled coil and cold rolled coil exports fell more than the previous month, the volume of exports fell 40.2% and 16.3%, respectively, compared with September, 16.6 percentage points and 11.2 percentage points, respectively. In terms of price, the average export price of cold series products ranked first. In October, the average export price of cold rolled narrow steel strip was 3910.5 US dollars/ton, double that of the same period last year, but fell for 4 consecutive months.
From January to October, a total of 39.006 million tons of plates were exported, accounting for 67.8% of the total export volume. 92.5% of the increase in exports came from sheet metal, and of the six major categories, only sheet metal exports showed positive growth compared with the same period in 2020 and 2019, with year-on-year growth of 45.0% and 17.8% respectively. In terms of subdivided varieties, the export volume of coated plate ranks first, with a total export volume of more than 13 million tons. The exports of cold and hot products increased significantly in the year, up 111.0% and 87.1% respectively compared with the same period in 2020, and 67.6% and 23.3% respectively compared with the same period in 2019. The export increment of both is mainly concentrated in the first half of the year. Since July, the export volume has been decreasing month by month under the influence of policy adjustment and price difference at home and abroad, and the export increment in the second half of the year has narrowed as a whole.
2. There was little change in the flow of exports, with ASEAN accounting for the largest proportion, but it fell to the lowest quarter in the year. In October, China exported 968,000 tons of steel to ASEAN, accounting for 21.5 percent of the total exports in that month. However, the monthly export volume has dropped to the lowest level of the year for four consecutive months, mainly due to poor demand performance in Southeast Asia affected by the epidemic and rainy season. From January to October, China exported 16.773,000 tons of steel to ASEAN, up 16.4% year on year, accounting for 29.2% of the total. It exported 6.606 million tons of steel to South America, up 107.0% year on year. Of the top 10 export destinations, 60% are from Asia and 30% are from South America. Among them, South Korea’s cumulative exports of 6.542 million tons, ranked first; Four ASEAN countries (Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia) ranked 2-5 respectively. Brazil and Turkey grew 2.3 times and 1.8 times, respectively.
Post time: Dec-01-2021