Morning Bites

🔗Global crude steel output remained broadly flat YoY at 149mnt in July, decelerating from the 2% YoY growth seen in June, according to World Steel Association (WSA) data. China’s production (~54% of global crude steel supply) fell 4% YoY to 77mnt, implying that world ex‑China output grew roughly 4% YoY. Specifically, in July, moderate production gains were recorded in the EU (+4% YoY), US (+4% YoY), Russia (+3% YoY) and India (+2% 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