China produced a total of 82.3 million tonnes of rebar over January-May, marking a 1.6% on-year decline, according to the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on June 19. This drop was steeper than the 0.9% decrease recorded for the first four months of this year.
In May alone, rebar output stood at 16.9 million tonnes, sliding by a marked 6% from May 2024 and down by 2.4% from April, the NBS data showed.
The sharp decline in the long steel production last month was largely attributed to reduced operations at rebar rolling lines of some domestic integrated steel mills, which scaled back output amid the seasonal summer lull in construction steel demand and squeezed profit margins, Mysteel Global notes.
The trend was also in line with Mysteel's survey findings, which showed the rebar rolling capacity utilization rate among the 137 Chinese steelmakers it regularly tracks registered 49.7% on average in May, slipping by 0.9 percentage point on month or lower by 1.8 percentage points on year.
Meanwhile, Mysteel's another survey among the 91 blast-furnace mills it monitors across China showed that their average loss on rebar sales reached Yuan 44/tonne ($6.1/t) last month, reversing from an average profit of Yuan 26/t in April.
China's spot rebar prices softened further in May, falling faster than raw materials. Mysteel assessed the national price of HRB400E 20mm rebar at Yuan 3,230/t and including 13% VAT as of May 30, slumping by Yuan 121/t on month, while the national composite coke price dropped by Yuan 90.7/t during the same period to Yuan 1,246.3/t.
Last month, the daily trading volume of long steel items comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 traders nationwide under Mysteel's regular survey averaged just 102,422 tonnes/day, down 13,254 t/d or 11.5% on month, indicating lacklustre demand from end-users as hot and humid weather hampered construction activity across much of China, particularly in the southern regions.
The NBS data showed China's finished steel output came in at 127.4 million tonnes in May, up 3.4% on year, and the cumulative production for the first five months reached 605.8 million tonnes, 5.2% higher than the same period last year.
