China continues to produce more steel than the rest of the world, COMBINED

[TaiShang]

Steel exports driven by multiple factors

China has become the world's largest steel exporter in both volume and value terms, a distinction which represents both the achievements of domestic mills as well as a sign of continued trouble.

During the first three quarters of this year, Chinese producers churned out 618 million tons of crude steel and 839 million tons of finished steel products, up 2.43 percent and 5.02 percent year-on-year respectively.

China's steel exports have registered strong growth as well. Specifically, overseas steel shipments reached 8.51 million tons and 8.55 million tons respectively in September and October, representing increases of 73.1 percent and 68.6 percent year-on-year.

More broadly, China's exports as a percentage of the total global steel trade rose from 4.8 percent in 2000 to more than 15 percent in 2013.

There are several reasons behind this considerable surge in Chinese steel exports.

First of all, Chinese producers have little choice but to tap foreign markets thanks to severe overcapacity and lackluster demand at home. Second, the global competitiveness of Chinese steel products, especially rolled products, has improved greatly. Third, economic recovery in the US and other Western nations has bolstered demand for steel, including steel from China.

The authors are Liu Chunchang and Zhang Wenhui, research fellows with the CCID Consulting.

 

[vsdave2302]

Yes China is a very big producer of steel with huge capacity. I believe that china is a biggest producer of the steel for a lonfg time.

 

[Indos]

It is going to be hard for any steel producers around the world competing the Chinese steel. Cheapest product or services with similar quality will have more advantage to gain any market share. It is the lesson we can learn from it. Stay focus on improving the quality first and it needs time of course for that. The next step is to improve our marketing once we have already had a superior product/ services.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

List of countries by steel production - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As of 2013, China produces more steel than the rest of the world combined.

That's almost 800 million metric tons of steel, every year.

 

[TaiShang]

List of countries by steel production - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As of 2013, China produces more steel than the rest of the world combined.

That's almost 800 million metric tons of steel, every year.

Perhaps more important than this has been China's becoming No 1 as world's largest still exporter.

 

[Echo_419]

It is going to be hard for any steel producers around the world competing the Chinese steel. Cheapest product or services with similar quality will have more advantage to gain any market share. It is the lesson we can learn from it. Stay focus on improving the quality first and it needs time of course for that. The next step is to improve our marketing once we have already had a superior product/ services.

Well the Chinese with the Koreans are dumbing a lot of cheap steel in the rest if developing world harming their own domestic industries

 

[Indos]

Well the Chinese with the Koreans are dumbing a lot of cheap steel in the rest if developing world harming their own domestic industries

We have banned exporting our raw material since this year, it is good to support our steel companies. I believe we can compete better in the future.

 

[senheiser]

lol america is not happy

Record Exports of Cheap Chinese Steel May Spark Trade War - Bloomberg

 

[Echo_419]

We have banned exporting our raw material since this year, it is good to support our steel companies. I believe we can compete better in the future.

Well that's a good thing

 

[TaiShang]

Citi Bends Toward China Steel

Higher exports and lower iron ore prices to favor Chinese mills in 2015. Which stocks will benefit?

By CITI

Steel is where we see sector re-rating opportunity. While we further lowered steel demand growth to just around 1% in 2015 and the capacity shutdown hasn’t made much progress throughout 2014, we forecast the steel margin to expand in 2015 given 1) the rising exports by another 12% year-on-year, which equates to incremental real demand, and 2) more oversupplied seaborne iron ore than Chinese steel. We continue to forecast a steel price decline for 2015, but it should drop less than the iron ore price, which we forecast down 34% YoY to US$65/ton in 2015. We upgrade Angang Steel ( 347.HK, 000898.CN) toBuy with new target price of HKD6.60 and Taiwan’s China Steel Corp (CSC) ( 2002.TW ) to Neutral with new a target price of TWD26.30. The Asia steel top picks are Baosteel Iron & Steel (600019.CN), JFE Holdings ( 5411.JP ) and POSCO (005490.KR).

Chinese exports hit a record high in 2014 but could rise further in 2015

Exports for the first 10 months of 2014 were up 42%YoY to 74 million tons (mnt), accounting for 9.4% of domestic production. We attribute the high exports to its cost advantages – a 45% drop in iron ore price and 90% share of iron ore–fed blast-furnace capacity in China, versus sticky scrap prices and the 35% share of scrap-fed electric arc furnace (EAF) capacity ex-China. We believe Chinese exports will continue to be incentivized to flow to high-priced Europe and the US, as well as South East Asia where there is a structural shortage. We therefore forecast China’s steel net exports to increase by another 10mnt, or 12% year-on-year, which should help ease domestic oversupply. Moreover, we do not expect changes in the export rebate policy, and the investments under the “New Silk Road Plan” should add “indirect” steel exports.

Steel margin to benefit from lower iron ore price

We forecast gross profit per ton to improve from US$69 in 2014 to US$72/t in 2015 for Angang, from US$60/t to US$72/t for CSC, from US$23/t to US$33/t for Magang and from US$95/t to US$119/t for Baosteel. While not meaningful, we’ve seen some margin expansion in 3Q14. Citi’s commodity team forecast seaborne iron ore supply growth of 6% for 2015 vs. our Chinese steel production growth of just 2%, more oversupplied than Chinese steel as steel capacity growth should also slow down to just 1% next year. We hence expect more pricing power shifting to steel mills from miners.

Korean and Japanese Steel: limited impact from higher Chinese steel exports

While we forecast higher Chinese steel exports, we believe the negative impact to Korean and Japanese steel mills should be low, given their export products are more high-end, such as autosheet. On the other hand, CSC could be more impacted in market share and the export price on some commodity grade steel, hence our Neutral rating. Our Buy-rated steel names in North Asia include Hyundai Steel (004020.KR), POSCO, Baosteel, Angang, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal ( 5401.JP ) and JFE (ranked by upsides to TP).

Upgrade Angang to Buy

While we expect lower iron ore cost to benefit steel sector margins in 2015, we prefer Angang over Maanshan Iron & Steel ( 323.HK, 600808.CN) as it is taking the right steps to add autosheet capacity through JVs with ThyssenKrupp and Kobe Steel ( 5406.JP ).

We keep our 2015 forecast unchanged but raise our 2016E earnings 14%. We upgrade our target price to HKD6.60 based on 0.77x 2015E price-to-book, in line with 0.45x standard deviation below historical average since 2009.

Upgrade CSC to Neutral

We raise our 2015-16E gross profit per ton forecast by 14%~34% for CSC and hence the net income forecasts by 43%~48%. Our new target price of TWD26.30 is based on 1.36x 2015E BVPS, 0.5SD below historical average since 2009. We believe CSC could see a more negative impact than its Korean and Japanese peers as it may compete in some commodity grade steel with Chinese exports. The company export around one third of its volume.

 

[TaiShang]

China tops, India 4th in list of steel producing nations
December 21, 2014

A worker checks stainless-steel cable at a base in Dalian, Liaoning province, China [Xinhua]


China has been world’s top steel producer in the first eleven months of 2014, producing around 650 million tonnes (Mt) steel, new World Steel Association (WSA) data showed.

China’s BRICS partner India will remain the world’s fourth largest steel maker this year, with an output of 76.19 Mt steel in the January-November period.

Global steel production during the period grew by 1.8 per cent to 1,497.75 Mt, compared to 1,471.44 Mt in the same period last year, says new data.

China, Japan, the US and India are the world’s top four steel producing nations in that order.

Production in the US grew by 1.5 per cent in the first 11 months of the year grew to 80.95 Mt from 79.75 MT a year ago.

The ranking among the top four steel producers remain the same for the last four years. China is the world’s biggest steel producer and consumer, with much of China’s steel surplus diverted to foreign markets.

China’s crude steel production for November was 63.3 Mt, the US 7.2 MT, South Korea 5.91 MT and Russia 5.84 MT.

China will encourage transferring “competitive” production to Southeast Asian countries in need of new infrastructure, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said last month.

China’s Heibei province, its biggest steelmaking region, has said it aims to transfer 5 million tons of production capacity overseas by 2017 and 20 million tons by 2023.

While announcing a $3.09 billion Chinese aid package for five of its neighbours during a regional summit in Thailand on Friday, the Chinese Premier also said Beijing would export its production capacity in steel and cement industries to these countries, especially those on regional transportation routes

 

[esolve]

India must surpass China in steel production: Modi - The Times of India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday linked steel production to India's defence preparedness and said India cannot afford to lag behind China in this field.

"We have surpassed the US. China is ahead of us. We must also surpass them," Modi said at a public meeting as he dedicated the expanded and modernized Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) to the nation.

China is the largest steel producer with a capacity of over 700 million tonne, which is nine times more than India's 80 million tonne.

The Centre has set a target of 300 million tonne steel production by 2025 to become the second largest steel producer globally.

"Our workforce is below 35 years old and can work hard to achieve this dream," Modi told a gathering of over 50,000 people.

The annual steel production at RSP is expected to rise to 4.5 million tonne per annum from two million after the latest expansion done at a cost of Rs 12,000 crore.

Modi said the quality steel production had an important role in strengthening the country's defence apparatus.

He added steel produced in Rourkela was used in indigenous Aircraft Carrier INS Vikrant, among others.

Modi made a strong pitch for his "Make in India" initiative. "When I talk of 'Make in India', I am not ready to lag behind anyone."

The Prime Minister said he was not in favour of exporting raw materials and minerals. "We should sell value-added products to the rest of the world to enhance our economic prowess. We have to inculcate an entrepreneurship culture," he said.

He said this would generate massive employment and increase profits by boosting economy. "What India could not achieve in 60 years by selling raw mineral, can be achieved in 10 years by promoting manufacturing."

Modi lamented the last decade was bad for Indian economy as there was an ambience of negativity and investors lacked trust. "But during the last 10 months, the air of pessimism is gone."

The Prime Minister asked states to work together with the Centre with a long-term vision for the country's development, instead of eyeing short-term goals.

He stressed on the need for eastern states to grow. "India will not prosper if only northern and western states prosper. We need faster growth in Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Assam and Jharkhand."

Modi cited the CAG report, which pointed out loss of Rs one lakh crore to the state exchequer due to previous method of preferential allocation of coal blocks.

He said more than Rs two lakh crore revenue had been generated by auction of only 20 coal blocks during his tenure.

"Those who presided over the previous decision of allotments of 204 blocks, now owe an answer to the country," he added.

Modi highlighted steps his government had taken to strengthen fiscal health of the states. He said mineral royalty was enhanced, while there was greater devolution of financial resources to states.

BJP workers booed chief minister Naveen Patnaik as he shared dais with Modi at the public meeting.

They raised pro-Modi slogans, interrupting Naveen's speech at the event.

Undeterred by the jeers, the chief minister continued his speech though he was hardly audible.

Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Jual Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan were seen requesting the crowd to remain calm. But the crowd was in no mood to oblige.

"This is not a healthy sign for democracy. It is not cooperative federalism that the PM often speaks about. In future, the non-BJP CMs would fear attending official functions addressed by Modi," said Naveen's Biju Janata Dal spokesperson Amar Prasad Satpathy.

India must surpass China in steel production: Modi - The Times of India

 

[C130]

what about concrete as well? going to surpass china in that too

 

[Kloitra]

Its surprising, or gross incompetence on the part of previous governments that the production is so low. So much ore as well as coal, the low production isn't justified.

 

[Kylin]

So in 10 years India will catch up to 3/7 less than half of what China has now.
Well, ask nicely we may lend a hand to make this go faster.