China crude steel production was 57.7 million tonnes in December, 11% higher than in the same month last year. China’s full-year 2012 production was 708.8 million tonnes, which is 4% higher than 2011 output.
Comparing consecutive months, December production was 0.2 million tonnes higher than November production, but due to the longer December month, average daily production was 3% lower. In addition, Chinese exports fell 4% between November and December and totaled 55.7 million tonnes for the full year 2012. Import data is currently not available.
Worldsteel published December’s global crude steel production on January 22nd. World crude steel production was 121.3 million metric tonnes in December, 3.8% higher than in December 2011 for the 62 countries reporting. Full-year 2012 crude production was 1,510 million tonnes, 1.4% higher than world output in 2011.
Asian crude production rose 2.9% between 2011 and 2012, and China’s alone rose 3.7%, with China now accounting for 47% of world production. European Union 27 production fell by 2.8% between 2011 and 2012 and December 2012 showed significant month-on-month drops of over 200,000 tonnes in Italy, Germany, France and Spain. In contrast, US production rose between November and December 2012 and showed a 3.5% rise between 2011 and 2012.
As usual, all the data for December 2012 together with a regional yearly summary is generously shared in the Nerds spreadsheet below.
Earnings season began with a bang this week as 4 companies reported Q4 and full year 2012 earnings. Links to press releases can be found below.
AK Steel’s results were the most disappointing, as the company reported an EBITDA loss of $89 per ton in Q4. US Steel’s EBITDA per ton came in at $34 for Q4 and $42 for the full year. Nucor and Steel Dynamics reported similar results for Q4 with SDI’s EBITDA per ton at $82 while Nucor reported $79. More results will be added soon to the Nerds of Steel earnings spreadsheet.
Based on reported import licenses, US long products imports fell 28% from 223,000 short tons in November to 160,000 tons in December. In comparison, December long products imports in 2011 were 180,000 tons, in 2010 171,000 tons, in 2009 166,000 tons, in 2008 178,000 tons, and finally in 2007 207,000 tons.
Rebar imports in December were almost half November’s, which was the main driver behind the overall drop. This was due to lower rebar imports from Turkey where November volumes of almost 60,000 tons fell to December’s 20,000 tons of import licenses. However, Turkish rebar imports are already showing a strong rebound in January, with January licenses reported up to January 15th already at 70,000 tons.
Mid-month January long products import licenses as reported January 15th were 164,000 tons, which means that full-month January imports will be much higher than December’s.
Based on reported import licenses, US flat product imports declined 7% from 745,000 short tons in November to 690,000 tons in December. December flat products imports were 542,000 tons in 2011, 547,000 tons in 2010, 405,000 tons in 2009, and 474,000 tons in 2008.
Imports of all product categories except hot roll declined. Hot dip galvanized imports in particular dropped by about 30% mainly due to lower Indian imports, but also lower imports from Korea.
I will update the spreadsheet below when the next licenses are reported in order to show mid-January license results.
China crude steel production was 57.5 million metric tonnes in November, 15% higher than in the same month last year. Year-to-date Chinese crude production was 651.1 million tonnes, 3% higher than year-to-November 2011 output.
Comparing consecutive months, November production was 1.6 million tonnes lower than October production, but due to the shorter November month, average daily production was 0.5% higher in November. In addition, China’s net exports in November were 4.0 million tonnes, 0.19 million tonnes higher than in October.
