Operation of stainless steel industry

1. Output reached a record high. From January to June 2013, the country produced 390 million tons of crude steel, an increase of 7.4%, and a growth rate of 5.6 percentage points higher than the same period in 2012. In the first six months, the average daily output of crude steel was 2.154 million tons, equivalent to the annual output of 786 million tons of crude steel. Among them, in February reached a record high of 2.208 million tons, although there was a decline in March to June, but still remained at a higher level of more than 2.1 million tons. From January to June, the crude steel production of Hebei and Jiangsu provinces increased by 6.8% and 13.2% year-on-year, respectively, and the total new production of the two provinces accounted for 42.4% of the increase of 26.94 million tons in the country, and the increase of Shanxi, Liaoning, Henan and Yunnan provinces was also more than 1 million tons. From January to June, the crude steel production of key large and medium-sized steel enterprises increased by 5.5% year-on-year, which was 2 percentage points lower than the national average, but 60% of the increase was still from key large and medium-sized steel enterprises.
(2) Low steel price operation. From January to June 2013, the overall performance of the domestic steel market was depressed. With the substantial release of crude steel production capacity, market supply and demand have fallen into an imbalance, and steel prices have entered the declining channel, which has been weak for more than 4 months. As of July 26, 2013, the steel price index dropped to 100.48 points, down from 6.6 points at the beginning of the year. The price of eight steel varieties in the key statistics of the Iron and Steel Industry Association has declined to varying degrees at the beginning of the year, with an average decline of 5.7%. By variety, the price of construction wire and rebar, which account for a large proportion of China's steel production, fell by 4.9% and 6.7%, respectively, and the price of medium and thick plate and hot rolled coil fell by 5.7% and 9.7%, respectively.
(3) Rapid growth of steel exports. The imbalance between supply and demand in the domestic steel market stimulates enterprises to export. From January to June, China exported 30.69 million tons of steel, an increase of 12.6%; 6.83 million tons of steel were imported, down 1.8%, and 320,000 tons of billets and ingot were imported, up 50%. Converting the billet into crude steel, the cumulative net export of 25.06 million tons, an increase of 17.3%, accounting for 6.4% of China's crude steel production. From the point of view of export prices, the average price of export rods and wires from January to June was 624.3 US dollars/ton, down 18% year-on-year; Sheet metal 835.2 US dollars/ton, down 2.8%.
(4) Steel mills and social inventories are running at high levels. The contradiction between supply and demand in the market is spreading to the circulation field, and the domestic steel inventory continues to grow at the end of last year. On March 15, it reached a record high of 22.52 million tons, an increase of 3.51 million tons over the previous year, of which 14.32 million tons of construction steel inventory, accounting for 63.6% of the total inventory. After that, as seasonal consumption increased, inventories gradually fell back, falling to 15.4 million tons on July 26. Oversupply in the market also pushed up steel inventories, key enterprises in mid-March steel inventories hit a record, reaching 14.51 million tons, an increase of 29.7%, in late June fell to 12.68 million tons, still an increase of 29.9% over the beginning of the year, an increase of 11.4% over the same period in 2012.
(5) The profit level of steel mills is declining month by month. In the first half of 2013, the metallurgical industry achieved a profit of 73.69 billion yuan, an increase of 13.7%, of which the ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry achieved a profit of 45.44 billion yuan, an increase of 22.7%. From January to May, the profitability of key large and medium-sized iron and steel enterprises is far less than the overall level of the industry, and is declining month by month, although the profit growth of 34%, but only 2.8 billion yuan, sales profit margin of 0.19%. In May, 86 key large and medium-sized steel enterprises only achieved a profit of 150 million yuan, five consecutive months of decline, of which 34 losses, the loss of up to 40%.
(6) The growth rate of fixed asset investment in the steel industry dropped significantly. From January to June 2013, the fixed asset investment in the iron and steel industry was 303.5 billion yuan, up 4.3% year-on-year, of which the ferrous metal smelting and rolling investment was 235.6 billion yuan, up 3.3% year-on-year, down 6.1 percentage points from the same period in 2012; The investment in ferrous metal mining and selection was 67.9 billion yuan, an increase of 7.8%, and the growth rate dropped significantly by 15 percentage points.