China's steel exports surged strongly

After New Year's Day, China's steel export prices continued to strengthen. Due to the increase in raw material prices and the steady support of the domestic steel market, China's steel export quotation continues to rise, and the export volume increases, and the enthusiasm of steel mills and traders to raise prices has skyrocketed.

Currently, the mainstream export price of hot rolled coil is 570-580 USD/ton FOB, which is higher than the previous year's 550-560 USD/ton FOB; the mainstream price of cold coil is 630-640 USD/ton FOB, which is 625-630 USD higher than the previous year's quotation. t FOB slightly higher; 1.0mm galvanized mainstream export price of 695-705 US dollars / ton FOB, higher than the previous year's 685-690 US dollars / ton FOB; thick plate mainstream export price of 550-555 US dollars / ton FOB, and years ago Quotes are flat. In the same period, the domestic steel market price increased by about RMB 20-50 over the previous year.

Although China's steel export prices continued to rise, it was still lower than the April 2012 high. As a result, the export volume of steel products increased, but the continuing downturn in the domestic downstream steel industry led to a decline in imports. Customs data show that in December 2012, steel exports reached 4.85 million tons, a decrease of 280,000 tons compared with the previous period, an increase of 30.38% year-on-year. From January to December, cumulative exports totaled 55.73 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 14%. In December, China imported 1.04 million tons of steel, which was 20,000 tons less than that in November, a year-on-year decrease of 12.61%. From January to December, it imported a total of 13.66 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 12.3%.

However, as export prices continue to rise, the low-cost advantages of Chinese resources are gradually weakening and the competitiveness in the international market is declining. In particular, as the cost of iron ore continues to rise, competition from Russia and other cost-advantageous countries has become increasingly fierce. Therefore, in addition to fighting prices in the post-international steel market competition, low cost is the key to victory. This forced Chinese steel companies to go out like WISCO and increase the self-sufficiency rate of minerals.