2021-12-30
A few days ago, the China Iron and Steel Industry Association released the performance of the steel industry from January to July. The data showed that in July, the growth rate of steel production dropped significantly, and the price of steel was relatively stable. Due to the high cost of raw materials, the efficiency of steel enterprises declined. Experts believe that steel companies are facing the dual pressures of rising costs and transformation and upgrading.
Crude steel production decreased month-on-month and imported iron ore increased significantly
In July, the country’s pig iron production was 68.31 million tons, a month-on-month decrease of 1.83 million tons, crude steel production was 85.22 million tons, a month-on-month decrease of 2.31 million tons, and steel production was 105.82 million tons, a month-on-month decrease of 1.28 million tons; In June, there was a sharp drop of 168,600 tons, a decrease of 5.78%.
From January to July, the country produced 473 million tons of pig iron, a year-on-year increase of 6.74%, produced 577 million tons of crude steel, a year-on-year increase of 9%, and produced 698 million tons of steel products, a year-on-year increase of 11.23%, which was slower than the growth rate from January to June. Among them, the crude steel production of member companies increased by 5.38% year-on-year, and the crude steel output of non-member companies increased by 20.9%. The output growth rate of non-member companies is much higher than that of member companies.
In terms of import and export, from January to July, the country exported 39.97 million tons of steel products, a year-on-year decrease of 2.9%; of which, in July, exports of steel products were 5.57 million tons, an increase of 4.9% from the previous month. From January to July, the country imported 6.664 million tons of steel, a year-on-year decrease of 13.4%; among them, the import of steel in July was 842,000 tons, a month-on-month decrease of 10.9%. The import and export balance, the net export of steel products in July was 4.728 million tons, an increase of 367,000 tons from the previous month, an increase of 8.42%. From January to July, the cumulative net export of steel products was 33.305 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 180,000 tons or 0.54%.
From January to July, my country imported 590 million tons of iron ore, a year-on-year decrease of 4.9%. Among them, iron ore imported 91.01 million tons in July, an increase of 15.83 million tons from the previous month, an increase of 21.06%; at the end of July, the port inventory of imported iron ore increased To 116.42 million tons, an increase of 770 thousand tons from the previous month, an increase of 0.7%.
According to data released by the General Administration of Customs, China imported 91.017 million tons of iron ore in July, an increase of 1.2% year-on-year compared with the same period last year, and an increase of 21% month-on-month. According to industry analysts, this is due to the gradual recovery of iron ore shipments from Australia and Brazil to China. In addition, the iron ore ships originally planned to be sent from Brazil to China in June have been delayed to arrive in Hong Kong in July, causing a single-month import growth rebound.
Steel prices are relatively stable and have declined year-on-year
At the end of July, the China Steel Price Index (CSPI) was 109.50 points, an increase of 0.05% from the previous month, of which the Long Products Index fell by 0.08% from the previous month and the Plate Index rose by 0.01%. In terms of varieties, the price of cold-rolled sheet has been stable, maintaining a trend of volatility and rising despite the decline in prices of other varieties. From January to July, the CSPI composite index averaged 109.48 points, a year-on-year decrease of 4.54 points, a decrease of 3.98%; the average value of July was 109.90 points, a month-on-month increase of 0.91 points, an increase of 0.83%.
In July, the CRU International Steel Composite Price Index was 160 points, a month-on-month decrease of 1.8 points, or 1.1%, and continued to decline; compared with the same period last year, it dropped 35.3 points, or 18.1%. Among them, the CRU Long Products Index was 177.6 points, a decrease of 2.1 points from the previous month, a decrease of 1.2%; the CRU Sheet Index was 151.2 points, a decrease of 1.7 points from the previous month, a decrease of 1.1%, and the rate of decrease was 5.5 percentage points narrower than in June; In comparison, the CRU Long Products Index dropped by 19.5 points, a decrease of 9.9%; the CRU Plate Index dropped 43.2 points, a decrease of 22.2%.
In terms of sales, from January to July, member steel companies achieved sales revenue of 2.43 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.75%; sales costs were 2.17 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.4%, and the increase in costs was greater than the increase in revenue; the total profit achieved was 123.582 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase A decrease of 23.93%; a sales profit margin of 5.09%, a year-on-year decrease of 2.25 percentage points. China Steel Association believes that the sharp decline in profit is mainly due to the increase in raw material and fuel prices. From January to July, the purchase cost of domestic iron ore increased by 19.88% year-on-year, imported ore increased by 29.13%, and scrap steel increased by 10.03%. At the end of July, the asset-liability ratio was 63.95%, a year-on-year decrease of 1.41 percentage points.
Experts believe that steel companies are facing the dual pressures of rising costs and transformation and upgrading. At present, the operating costs of steel-related companies mainly include labor costs, fuel material costs, and logistics costs. Due to the disappearance of the demographic dividend, the labor cost advantage has also disappeared; the raw materials are mostly bulk commodities, and negotiations are more difficult; to reduce the overall cost, it is necessary to adopt a multi-pronged approach and improve operational efficiency.
In the opinion of experts, China's steel industry urgently needs to improve its iron ore price negotiation capabilities, and at the same time it is also facing the pressure of transformation and upgrading. Intelligence and big data will become one of the key development directions in the future.
Contact Us at Any Time
