MEPS Global Composite Steel Index Prices Drops to 38-Month Low

Steel prices across the globe continued trending downwards in May. Selling figures declined in twenty four of the twenty eight nations in which MEPS conducts research. In the remaining four countries, transaction values were stable.

Excess steel supply and poor demand are expected to continue to exert negative pressure on prices in the short term. Moreover, input expenditure is likely to remain at a low level in the immediate future.

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Rebar Set for Weekly Decline as Iron Ore Falls to Five-Month Low

Steel reinforcement-bar futures headed for a weekly loss as the price of iron ore, the main ingredient in steelmaking, fell to the lowest in five months. Rebar for delivery in October on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell as much as 0.6 percent to 3,529 ($575) a metric ton and was at 3,531 at 10:15 a.m. local time.

Futures have declined 3 percent this week, the most since the week ended April 19.

Ore with 62 percent iron content at the port of Tianjin fell 1.1 percent to $125 a dry ton yesterday, according to The Steel Index Ltd. “The view that iron ore prices will continue to decline is becoming more convincing, which leads to expectations for lower steel-products prices in the second half of 2013,” Zhang Lei, analyst at Nanhua Futures Co., said by phone from Shenyang today.

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Surging Chinese Steel Exports Put Pressure on World Prices

A surge in Chinese steel production and a flood of exports are pressuring world-wide steel prices despite Beijing’s efforts to rein in the steel industry, in the latest example of the global impact of China‘s massive industrial overcapacity.

Global steel prices have fallen 3.5% since February to an average of $710 a ton, according to MEPS steel consultancy. While China hasn’t been shipping much more directly to the U.S., much of its material is destined for the world’s largest economy via trans-shipments through Japan, South Korea, Singapore or Malaysia.

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Baosteel cuts steel products prices in China

Baosteel, the nation’s largest listed steelmaker has cut the prices of its main steel products by about three percent for the first time in the nine months, Shanghai Securities News reported.

According to the factory policy for June bookings issued by Baosteel on Thursday, hot rolled steel plate is down 180 yuan ($29) per ton, while the price of cold rolled steel plate is down 150 yuan per ton, and the prices of most mid-thick products have been decreased by 200 yuan per ton. The price of mid-thick boat deck, however, stays the same.

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China’s runaway steel train

By rights, many companies should have closed. Instead, they march on like zombies, China’s industrial undead.
China simply makes too much steel. The government estimates that China’s annual production is about 100 million tonnes more than it should be, a figure equal to the whole annual output of the industry in the United States.

Worse, China has far too many steel companies, more than 700 at last count. Add in iron companies and companies that roll or otherwise shape steel, and the total comes to more than 7,000. Despite repeated government attempts to force them to consolidate into fewer, bigger companies, most of them are still small and inefficient.

via China’s runaway steel train on Propurchaser.

Steelmakers Pinched by Price Plunge

Steel prices have slumped this month, setting off a scramble among steelmakers to maintain prices and market share despite a nationwide glut.

In a bid to maintain market share in the lukewarm economy, steel mills have been increasingly offering 5% to 8% discounts on index-linked contracts since the financial crisis. “Everybody’s been undercutting in the market because there’s way too much steel,” says Charles Bradford, an analyst with Bradford Research Inc. They’re also offering price rebates and waiving some extra fees on higher-grade products, according to buyers and traders.

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Base metals caught up in the turmoil

Industrial metals prices trading on the London Metal Exchange were shaken this week by an unexpected slowdown in Chinese growth, followed by gloomy indicators in the United States, which cast doubt on global growth strength.

Like oil and gold, base metals were taken Monday in a huge selloff movement affecting all commodities: speculative investors were rushing to withdraw from the market.

“The week started quietly in Asian trade … until China published macroeconomic statistics that totally reversed the trend“, said Edward Meir, analyst at broker INTL FCStone.

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Global steel consumption is recovering

In its Short Range Outlook published yesterday, the Worldsteel association estimates that steel consumption will rebound to 1.5 billion tonnes in 2014 but European demand will not exceed 144 million tonnes, representing less than 10% of global demand.

After an increase of only 1.2% in 2012, world steel consumption is expected to rebound by 2.9% in 2013 to 1,454 million tonnes (Mt), indicate the short-term outlook published by the Worldsteel association. 2012 was a difficult year for the steel industry, with apparent steel use increasing at the slowest rate since 2009 when demand declined by -6.5%, said Hans Jürgen Kerkhoff, President of the Economic Committee of the organization. The decline was mainly due to the eurozone where apparent steel use decreased by 9.3% to 140 Mt in 2012.

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Steel – Overcapacity in 2013

The steel sector still shows a significant global over-capacity according to Ernst & Young’s report, Global steel: A new world, a new strategy, highlighting the issues and challenges facing the sector.

The planet will still produce too much steel this year. Europe may well have closed many furnaces last year, emerging markets have not cut their production and instead increased it! China has an overcapacity of around 40 million tons of steel: its economy can not absorb all this metal since construction as well as the automobile industry slowed down and will only gradually start picking up.

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China: steel industry in need of restructuring

Worldwide steel mills have reached a total estimated supply capacity of 1.8 billion tons, vs. a steel global demand of only 1.5 billion tons. Like Europe, China produces too much steel and it must restructure its industry.

Over the last 10 years, when steel production increased by 20% in Europe, it went up by 534% in China which now produces nearly half the world’s steel vs. 18% in 2001. The growth of the Chinese steel industry corresponds to the rapid development of the construction and infrastructure industry. Since 2008, the sector has also been heavily subsidized by the Chinese public banks.

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