China’s steel consumption to rise 0.6% in 2023
China’s apparent consumption of crude steel is expected to edge up by 5.97 million tonnes or 0.6% on year to 973.9 million tonnes in 2023, Mysteel predicts in its newly-published forecast for the domestic steel market for this year.
Chinese traders’ stocks rise by another 9% on week
The inventories of finished steel products held by Chinese traders tracked by Mysteel grew again over January 6-12 by another 9.4% on week and registering the third straight weekly rise, the latest Mysteel’s survey shows. Behind the further rise was the stronger holiday mood in the steel market that is causing steel sales to slow, as more market participants leave for home to celebrate the approaching Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday, sources said.
China early Jan daily steel output at 5-mth low
China’s daily crude steel output continued to decrease during the first ten days of January, with the tonnage down by another 104,500 tonnes/day or 3.9% from the late December period to average 2.6 million t/d, the lowest since last August, according to Mysteel’s survey among 247 blast-furnace (BF) and 85 electric-arc-furnace (EAF) steel mills nationwide.
China’s December aluminum production increased 8.03% YoY
According to Mysteel data, China’s primary aluminum production was 3,463,600 tonnes in December, up 3.8% on month and 8.03% on year. Daily output increased by 0.4% on month to 111,700 tonnes.
By the end of December, total primary aluminum installed capacity was 44.95 million tons/year, up 0.58% on month and 4.33% on year. The operating capacity was 40.7 million tons/year by the end of the month, down 0.29% on month and up 6.75% on year. The operating rate in December was 90.55%, down 0.79% on month and up 2.05% on year.
According to Mysteel data, around 137,000 tons of capacity have been restarted in December, bringing the total restarts to 3.98 million tonnes in 2022. Yunnan, Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Shanxi, Sichuan and Gansu were the mainly contributors to the capacity growth. In December, China’s primary aluminum restarts concentrated in Guangxi and Sichuan, which were slower than expected due to high cost and low profit.
In December, the newly added production capacity mainly concentrated in Inner Mongolia and Guizhou. According to Mysteel’s survey, Guizhou Yuanhao Aluminum put the first phase into production on December 29, and it is expected to reach 100,000 tonnes/a in the first quarter of 2023.
Source from mysteel.net
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