In September this year, China’s import volumes of semi-finished steel amounted to 370,000 mt, up 417.9 percent year on year, 148.4 percentage points higher than the increase recorded in August, according to the monthly import and export data issued by the Chinese customs authorities. Moreover, high import shipments will persist until the end of the year as Chinese customers have already booked large quantities of billets and slabs for November shipment.
The latest deals for purchases of Malaysian and Indian billet were heard in China last week, as SteelOrbis previously reported. There have been reports that ex-CIS billet has been also booked recently, but most sources have denied this information. The last price level in deals has been at around $400/mt CFR. Some sources said that bid prices for large volumes are at $390-395/mt CFR at the moment. The last slab import contract has been closed at $370-380/mt CFR China.
The main reason for China’s strong appetite for import semis is still high local prices, with foreign billet and slabs up to $20/mt cheaper to buy than domestic semis.
In the January-September period of the current year, China’s import volumes of semi-finished steel amounted to 1.37 million mt, up 53.1 percent year on year, 31.2 percentage points faster than the increase rate in the January-August period this year. If China’s import shipments are around 200,000 mt per month up to the end of the year, total semi-finished steel imports will be 2 million mt in 2019. Some sources said that the import volumes for the November-December period will be higher, 300,000 mt per month or above, and so total annual shipments will exceed 2 million mt.