Steel production in China in January-February increased by 12.9%

China's steel production for January-February was about 175 million tonnes, up 12.9% year-on-year, up from 7% annual growth in the 2020 aspect, according to the country's latest National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data from March 15th. although this was mainly due to low baselines in the first quarter of 2020, when the country was hit by COVID-19.

For January-February, China's daily crude steel production averaged 2.97 million tonnes per day, up from 2.94 million tonnes per day in December last year or 2.91 million tonnes per day for all of 2020, and this was much higher than about 2.5 million tonnes per day. d for Q1 2020 Mysteel Global calculated based on NBS data.

The relatively high steel production in the first two months of 2021 was due to the expectation of Chinese steel mills and the market for a faster recovery in end-user demand after the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday, as their employees did. celebrating the RMB in their migrant cities.

In addition, the market outlook for the full year of 2021 looks positive due to continuous efforts by Beijing to keep the national economy on a bumpy road due to COVID-19, as well as the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan period and Mysteel Global celebrates its 100th anniversary. Communist Party of China, total in 2021.

The overall positive atmosphere also saw finished steel production in China climb more markedly by 23.6% from Jan-Feb to around 209.5Mt, up from 10% growth in 2020, according to data from NBS.

Domestic steel prices in China have supported general market optimism, especially after the RMB holiday since mid-February: for example, the national price of HRB400 20mm rebar reached RMB 4688 /t ($ 721 /t) as of February 26. Mysteel estimates it is 321 yuan /tonne from the end of 2020.

Daily trade in construction steel, including rebar, wire rod and wire rod, between China's 237 trading houses reached 87,982 tons per day by February 26, up from 7,502 tons per day on February 5, the last day Mysteel tracked daily trading. transaction volume before the interruption in CNY.

Domestic steel demand in China appears to have strengthened further in March as daily trading volume continues to climb steadily, with volume averaging 146,289 tonnes /day from 22 Feb to 12 March or exceeding 150,000 tonnes /day from Martha. 5 and once exceeding 200,000 dpi on March 12,