Worldsteel reported Chinese crude steel production at 58.5 million metric tonnes in February, 4.0% lower than in February 2015. China’s net finished steel exports (exports minus imports) in February were 7.2 million tonnes, 3.6% lower than in February 2015 and 29.9% lower than the record net exports level reached in September 2015.
China monthly crude steel production
January 2005 to February 2016
thousand metric tonnes
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Worldsteel published February’s world crude steel production on March 21st. World crude steel output was 120.4 million metric tonnes, 3.3% lower than in February 2015. World crude production for the first 2 months of 2016 was 5.6% lower than in the same period of 2015.
China accounted for 49% of world production in February with output of 58.5M tonnes, down 4.0% compared to February 2015. Outside of China, significant changes in Asia include a 15.6% drop in Taiwan, a 3.6% decline in India, but a 5.0% increase in South Korea. In the Americas, US production rose 2.9% compared to last February, Mexican production was down 10.3% and Brazilian output fell 8.7%. European Union crude production fell 6.3% over the same period, driven by lower output in the UK (-37.9%) and Germany (-4.3%).
All the data for February 2016 and for a number of prior years can be found in the Nerds spreadsheet below.
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Based on reported import licenses, US long products imports fell 11% from 412,000 short tons in January to 365,000 tons in February. Long products imports in February 2015 were 446,000 tons and in February 2014 they were 298,000 tons.
The drop in longs imports was mainly due to lower parallel flange sections imports, with significantly lower volumes from Spain.
Long products licenses for March as reported mid-month on March 15th were 226,00 tons.
SIMA US long products import licenses and import actuals
2012 to 2016
short tons
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The US Department of Commerce published the preliminary antidumping decision on cold rolled steel imports last week. It will be interesting to see what kind of impact the trade case have on import volumes.
Since the last peak in October 2014, US cold rolled sheet (excluding strip) imports from all countries have declined by 47% from 295,000 short tons to 156,000 tons in January 2016. Imports from the countries under investigation (Brazil, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, Russia, and the UK) declined 86% from 206,000 tons to 29,000 tons, while imports from non-investigated countries rose 42% to 127,000 tons.
In brief, imports from investigated countries are down 177,000 tons and imports from other countries are up 38,000 tons. We’ll continue to monitor the impact of trade cases on imports, not just for cold rolled but for other products as well.
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Based on reported import licenses, US flat products imports dropped 20% from 997,000 short tons in January to 795,000 tons in February. Flat products imports in February 2015 were 1,254,000 tons and in February 2014 they were 982,000 tons.
Lower hot rolled imports drove the decline with significantly lower volumes compared to February from Canada and Japan.
I will update the chart below to show mid-March licenses when the figures are published the week of March 14th.
SIMA US import licenses and actuals, flat products
January 2013 to February 2016
short tons
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