Industry news

China to extend purchase-tax waiver on NEVs to end-2023

Time:2022-9-27

The purchase date refers to the issuing date of valid documents such as unified invoices for motor vehicle sales or special payment letters for customs duties, according to a release on MOF's website.

NEVs qualified for the tax reliefs or waivers include pure electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (including extended-range electric vehicles) and fuel cell vehicles listed in the catalogs issued by MIIT and State Administration of Taxation.

China's MIIT and taxation agency release the catalogs of auto manufacturers and their NEV models eligible for tax reliefs or waivers from time to time, and the latest list - the 58th batch - was posted on MIIT's website on September 15, Mysteel Global noted.

NEVs in the list of catalogs released prior to December 31 2022 will continue to be exempted from purchase taxes, according to the MOF release.

It's the third time for China to have extended the exemption of purchase taxes on NEVs since the country first introduced the policy in September 2014, as the latest tax exemption is set to expire by the end of this year.

"The extension of the policy is expected to further boost NEVs sales and benefit both NEVs manufacturers and consumers," a market source in Shanghai told Mysteel Global.

Over January-July, China sold 3.19 million units of NEVs, soaring by 120% on year. And the vehicles were exempted from purchase tax of Yuan 40.68 billion ($5.7 billion), a surge of 108.5% percent on year, according to the data from China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Source:Mysteel

--Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com

--Edited by Zhenqi Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com

China's 16 key property developers see Aug sales improve

Time:2022-09-09

An Industry insider suggested that although sales showed signs of recovering last month, "the performance of the property market in September will be crucial to the improvement of market sentiment," he said.

"With the arrival of the traditional peak season for the property sector in September, various measures to stabilize the market have been introduced and implemented, which may be conducive to the market mood," he elaborated.

Among the 16 major developers, six recorded on-month rises in sales value during August, while two saw on-year gains, the data showed. Poly Developments and Holdings Group Co (Poly Development) was the top-selling real estate enterprise last month, with its contacted sales climbing 16.6% on month to Yuan 38.5 billion.

Hongkong-listed China Jinmao Holdings Group achieved the largest on-month rise in contracted sales, surging 57.4% on year to Yuan 16.5 billion, according to its release.

As for January-August, the combined sales of the 16 developers plunged by 42.8% to Yuan 1.94 trillion, Mysteel calculated based on the data.

Within the total, Poly Development, China Vanke Co and Country Garden Holdings Co (Country Garden) were the only three developers whose sales exceeded Yuan 200 billion in the past eight months. Country Garden did not release data for contracted sales, but it posted the equity proportion of its investment in a property.

Source:Mysteel

--Written by Rong Zhang, zhangronga@mysteel.com

--Edited by Zhenqi Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com

China steel prices to stay rangebound for now

Time:2021-12-21

"Domestic steel demand could stay weak at the end of the year, while steel output is likely to remain at a low level with the production curbs imposed on steel mills in the winter heating season," CISA pointed out in the report.

The association mainly attributed the overall weak demand to slowing growth among major steel - consuming industries such as infrastructure and property development - where investment is lagging - and industrial machinery manufacturing, despite the slight recovery in business.

However, a new balance will emerge in supply and demand in the coming term as crude steel output may stay low, the report said. Output may dip due to restrictions placed on mills' production to improve air quality when Beijing hosts the Winter Olympic Games in February and the 'Two Sessions' political meetings in March, CISA noted.

During November, China produced 69.31 million tonnes of crude steel, lower by 22% from one year earlier, with daily crude steel output averaging 2.31 million tonnes/day, almost unchanged from the October average, CISA said, quoting data from the country's National Bureau of Statistics.

Besides, total inventories of the five steel major products comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate in the country's 20 cities surveyed by the association slipped by 4.4% from late November to 8.27 million tonnes as of December 10. The total stocks held by CISA's member mills increased 6.9% during the same period to 13.34 million tonnes, leading CISA to suggest that prices are unlikely to experience large fluctuations as traders' stocks have declined further, even though mills' inventories have climbed.

Chinese steelmakers are still under great pressure to reduce their production costs due to the recovery in prices of imported iron ore and scrap this month, CISA warned. As of December 10, prices of imported iron ore and scrap had gained 3.1% and 1.9% respectively from the end of November, the association noted.

CISA suggested that domestic steelmakers pay more attention to Beijing's series measures to stabilize the economy in 2022 and arrange their production reasonably to keep domestic steel prices stable.

Source:Mysteel

Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com

Edited by Zhenqi Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com

Turkey: Imported scrap market quite amid weak demand

Time:2021-12-20

Towards the end of last week, a US-origin cargo containing 22,000 tonnes (t) of HMS 1&2 (80:20) and 8,000 t of shredded scrap were booked at an average price of $476/t CFR Turkey by a West Marmara-based steel mill, SteelMint learnt from sources.

Due to the pessimistic mood, SteelMint's assessed price for US-origin HMS 1 & 2 (80:20) stands at $470/t CFR Turkey, lower by around $5/t w-o-w.

Turkey market highlights

Lira plummets to new low: The Turkish lira dipped further against the US dollar amid worries of a further interest rate cut by the Turkish central bank despite soaring inflation. The rate slash is in line with the present government's policy of keeping interest rates low to boost growth. Turkey's lira devalued to trade at TRY 15.03 against the dollar compared to TRY 13.74 a week ago.

Domestic scrap prices fall: Turkey's domestic scrap offers declined following the low import offers. However, market participants believe that currency deflation is the key factor behind the drop.

Domestic rebar prices down: Subdued buying activities locally, and negative sentiments in the imported scrap market led to weakening in rebar prices. Turkey's long steel producer, ICDAS, reduced its domestic rebar prices by $30/t compared to the levels seen at the end of last week to $720/t exw- Biga and $727/t CFR Marmara.

Automotive production moves south : In November, Turkey's automotive sector saw another production cut as in October. The country witnessed a y-o-y drop in vehicle production by 19.7% to 115,078 units as per the Turkish Automotive Manufacturers' Association (OSD). In particular, the total production of passenger cars stood at 70,974 units, falling by 22% y-o-y.

Meanwhile, commercial vehicle production amounted to 44,104 units, down by 15% y-o-y.

Outlook

Dull domestic market sentiments might keep steel mills under pressure. However, producers would start booking cargoes in the short term for January shipments to restock for winter.

Source:Steelmint

India pellet export index stable

Time:2021-12-17

Rationale:

No deal was heard to be concluded in this publishing window. Hence, the weightage given was 0%.

Five (5) indicative offers and bids were received, and four (4) were considered for calculation of the index, given a weightage of 100%.

"The market is still silent. There are not many offers at present," a trader source said.

As per data maintained with SteelMint, pellet exports from Indian ports for the week (5 Dec-11 Dec) were recorded nil for the second consecutive week.

With the Winter Olympics coming up in Feb'22, output curbs in China will possibly be implemented on both blast furnaces and iron ore sintering machines, which will keep steel production on the lower side. This, in turn, has weighed down demand for the raw material.

Blast furnace capacity utilisation among China's 247 steel mills, fell to 74.8% around the end of November-early December as against 87.19% in early December of 2019, while around the same time of 2020, the rate was perching high at around 92.4%, according to Mysteel's data.

Spot iron ore prices have stabilised in the past one week after rising in the last couple of weeks. The spot price of benchmark iron ore Fe 62% fines dropped marginally to $108.25/t CFR China on 14 Dec'21, down by $0.3/t w-o-w. DCE iron ore futures Jan'22 contract closed at RMB 649/t ($111.96), (-RMB 1.5) d-o-d.

Total pellet inventory at China's major ports was recorded at 4 million tonnes (mn t) last week, as against 4.3 mn t the week before.

Domestic pellet prices increase: SteelMint's bi-weekly domestic pellet (Fe 63%) index, PELLEX, stands at INR 10,450/t DAP Raipur on 14 Dec'21, up by around INR 500/t against the last assessment on 10 Dec'21.

Though global iron ore prices have increased along with rise in futures, physical trading is yet to pick up which, in turn, is weighing on Indian pellet sentiments, said an eastern India-based pellet player.

Source:Steelmint