The market opened with weakness and ended in decline. Rumors suggest that there will be…
- The production of iron and steel increased rapidly. From January to February, China’s output of pig iron, crude steel and steel was 144.752 million tons, 174.989 million tons and 209.526 million tons, up 6.4%, 12.9% and 23.6% year on year, respectively, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
- The import and export of steel increased greatly. According to the General Administration of Customs, China exported 10.14 million tons of steel in January and February, up 29.9% year on year. Steel imports totaled 2.4 million tons, up 17.4% year on year.
- Steel prices from the decline to rise. China’s steel composite price index at the end of January was 1.49 points lower than at the end of December, according to the China Iron and Steel Association. At the end of February, China’s steel composite price index was 131.36 points, up 8.33 points or 6.77% compared with the end of January. It increased by 30.97 points year-on-year, or 30.85%.
- Significant increase in corporate efficiency. From January to February, 89 key statistics iron and steel enterprises realized sales revenue of 939.67 billion yuan, up 53.16% year on year; Its profit was 39.702 billion yuan, up 160.36% year on year; Sales profit margin 4.23%, 1.74 percentage points higher than the same period last year.
- Steel stocks rose significantly. In late February, the stock of five kinds of steel (rebar (5115, -12.00, -0.23%), wire rod, hot rolled coil, cold rolled coil, medium and thick plate) in 20 cities was 16.95 million tons, 7.22 million tons more than that in late January, up 74.2%; 9.65 million tons more than at the beginning of the year, up 132.2 percent; That is down 2.1 million tons or 11.0% from the same period last year.
- Imported ore prices run high. China imported 181.506 million tons of iron ore (983, -5.50, -0.56 percent) in January and February, up 2.8 percent year on year, according to the General Administration of Customs. From January to February, the average price of imported fine ore (62% grade) was USD144.5 / ton, an increase of USD52.2 / ton year-on-year, an increase of 56.6%.