Morning Bites

🔗Global crude steel output increased 2% YoY in June to 156mnt, vs. the broadly flat YoY dynamics in May, World Steel Association (WSA) data show. China’s production (~54% of global crude steel supply) remained unchanged YoY at 84mnt, implying that world ex‑China output grew roughly 3.3% YoY. Specifically, in June, solid production gains were recorded in the EU (+5% YoY), India (+5% YoY) and the US (+4% YoY), while Russia’s supply dropped 3% YoY

Given the ongoing weakness in the global steel market, we believe that Beijing might continue to tighten supply on a gradual basis. Specifically, in May, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released a tougher steel capacity swap plan to curb oversupply: now at least 1.5t of old steel capacity needs to exit to build ⁠every 1.0t of new capacity nationwide

#steel