The Chinese steel futures dropped on October 27, as the raw material prices plummeted amid government intervention to cool the commodity prices, while the demand for the industrial metal remained subdued on output controls.
In that context, the most-active coking coal and coke futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange opened down at 9% to trade at 2,704 yuan and 3,430 yuan, respectively. They hit their daily trading limits.
This drop came as thermal coal reached its 10% lower trading limit after the state planner stated that it had asked major coal-producing regions to probe and regulate all illegal storage sites, and then crackdown on hoarding behaviors.
Benchmark iron ore futures on the Dalian bourse, for the January delivery, closed up by 1% to 707 yuan a tonne, recovering from a 4.1% plunge earlier during the session.
Notably, the spot prices of the steelmaking ingredient with around 62% iron content for delivery to China remained constant at $121.5 a tonne on October 26, based on analysis by SteelHome consultancy. Analysts with CITIC Securities said in a note:
“Affected by energy consumption controls, environmental curbs during winter heating season and the Winter Olympics… steel supply is expected to be restricted continuously, iron ore demand will be dented in the long term.”
The steel rebar trading on the Shanghai Futures Exchange lost 4.3% to trade at 4,655 yuan a tonne. On the other hand, the hot-rolled coils that are used in cars and home appliances, plunged by 3.6% to 5,032 yuan per tonne at close. Shanghai stainless steel futures ended the day down 2.1% to 19,630 yuan a tonne.
The Fundamentals
The Cabinet in China issued an action plan to bring the carbon emissions to a peak before 2030, insisting to continue cut steel capacity, enhance recycling rates of steel scrap, and boost electric arc furnaces technologies.
China’s industrial profits surged at a faster rate in September underpinned by strong profits at mining and raw material manufacturing industries, via high commodity prices and supply-chain issues still weigh on firms’ profitability, based on reports by the National Bureau of Statistics.
