By | 2008-03-08 00:00:00

     JINAN Iron & Steel Co., whose parent is merging with Laiwu Iron & Steel Group Co., said Thursday first-half profit may double because of higher prices and lower costs. Net income may surge between 50 percent and 100 percent from 366.3 million yuan (US$48 million), or 0.32 yuan a share, a year earlier, the Jinan, Shandong Province-based company said in a preliminary earnings statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The merger with Laiwu would create the world's eighth-largest steelmaker as the government urges consolidation to create more competitive groups. Steel prices in China, the world's top maker of the metal, recovered this year after mills boosted exports and the government curbed loan growth. "Most steelmakers will report good results for the first half because of higher steel prices,'' said Ma Haitian, an analyst at Beijing Antaike Information Development Co. Jinan Steel is shifting production to higher grades as China has overcapacity in lower grades. The company increased output of steel plates, a more valuable product used in ships, and benefited from higher steel prices, Jinan said. Prices of hot-rolled coil, an industry benchmark, have averaged 4,248 yuan a ton in China so far this year, compared with 3,776 yuan a year ago, according to Metal Bulletin. Still, the price has fallen 6.5 percent from 4,410 yuan, this year's high May 18, as the government raised export taxes May 21 to help curb a trade surplus. The government has also said it will from July 1 remove export-tax breaks on some steel products to discourage exports, and also rein in the trade surplus. "Jinan Steel and Laiwu will suffer in the third quarter,'' said Antaike's Ma. "Their exports may fall due to the recent tax changes, and steel prices will be lower.''

By | 2008-03-08 00:00:00

China may come up with more restrictions to curb steel exports, including imposing licenses to export companies, restricting steel projects in the processing sector, a senior official with the country's top economic planner said. Restricting steel export will still be the tendency and China would reduce its steel production to avoid overcapacity, said Hu Chunli, a senior official with China's National Development and Reform Commission. China has already taken six measures to discourage steel export and export rebates for many steel products had been lowered to zero while tariff for some steel products also reached 15 percent. According to the latest statistics released by China Customs, the country's steel products exports stood at 5.38 million tons in August, down 9.4 percent over last month. However, in the first eight months, China's steel and steel billets exports still jumped by 83.8 percent and 10.9 percent to 45.08 million tons and 5.61 million tons. Strong demand in the international market, high profit of exporting and weak influence of curbing policies are the main reasons for the increasing exports. "As long as the steel export generates more profit, Chinese enterprises will still expand their exports," Hu said. Along with the declining investing in the steel sector, implementation of reducing emission and energy saving and new curbing policies, steel export will finally go down, he said.

By | 2008-03-08 00:00:00

China may come up with more restrictions to curb steel exports, including imposing licenses to export companies, restricting steel projects in the processing sector, a senior official with the country's top economic planner said. Restricting steel export will still be the tendency and China would reduce its steel production to avoid overcapacity, said Hu Chunli, a senior official with China's National Development and Reform Commission. China has already taken six measures to discourage steel export and export rebates for many steel products had been lowered to zero while tariff for some steel products also reached 15 percent. According to the latest statistics released by China Customs, the country's steel products exports stood at 5.38 million tons in August, down 9.4 percent over last month. However, in the first eight months, China's steel and steel billets exports still jumped by 83.8 percent and 10.9 percent to 45.08 million tons and 5.61 million tons. Strong demand in the international market, high profit of exporting and weak influence of curbing policies are the main reasons for the increasing exports. "As long as the steel export generates more profit, Chinese enterprises will still expand their exports," Hu said. Along with the declining investing in the steel sector, implementation of reducing emission and energy

By | 2008-03-08 00:00:00

China may come up with more restrictions to curb steel exports, including imposing licenses to export companies, restricting steel projects in the processing sector, a senior official with the country's top economic planner said. Restricting steel export will still be the tendency and China would reduce its steel production to avoid overcapacity, said Hu Chunli, a senior official with China's National Development and Reform Commission. China has already taken six measures to discourage steel export and export rebates for many steel products had been lowered to zero while tariff for some steel products also reached 15 percent. According to the latest statistics released by China Customs, the country's steel products exports stood at 5.38 million tons in August, down 9.4 percent over last month. However, in the first eight months, China's steel and steel billets exports still jumped by 83.8 percent and 10.9 percent to 45.08 million tons and 5.61 million tons. Strong demand in the international market, high profit of exporting and weak influence of curbing policies are the main reasons for the increasing exports. "As long as the steel export generates more profit, Chinese enterprises will still expand their exports," Hu said. Along with the declining investing in the steel sector, implementation of reducing emission and energy

By | 2008-03-08 00:00:00

Thomson Financial reported that French metals group Eramet's Erasteel unit will invest EUR 10 million in a high speed steel processing plant at Tianjin in northern China. Eramet said it would launch the plant to be called Erasteel Innovative Materials during the fourth quarter of this year. It said the it would import wire rod from Erasteel's European production sites and draw it into bars and coils for customers in China and across Asia. From 2008, Eramet said the new plant would also produce high precision shaped wire for the bi metal band saw market.

By | 2008-03-08 00:00:00

BEIJING -- The Chinese government has reacted strongly to European anti-dumping applications against Chinese steel products, stating China's iron and steel industry would expand to satisfy domestic demand rather than to dominate the global market. Deputy director of the Industrial Department of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Xiong Bilin said China would accelerate the closure of out-of-date steelworks and continue to boost the industrial upgrading of steel sector. He said China had so far eliminated backward mills with an aggregate capacity of 11.44 million tons for iron and 8.73 million tons for steel. This month, 18 provinces and municipalities will clinch responsibility pledges with the NDRC to advance the closure of out-of-date steel factories. "If everything goes smoothly, the eliminated capacity for iron would reach 36.66 million tons by the end of this year, and for steel 35.69 million tons," he said. The China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemical Importers and Exporters also released a statement Wednesday, calling the dumping charges by the European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries (Eurofer) "groundless and not conforming to reality". "China's rising output and exports of steel products were powered by the demands of domestic and overseas markets rather than the spread in local and overseas prices," said the statement. Given that China accounted for one third of the world's crude steel output, if there was a global demand for the low-end product when no other country could meet the demand, market forces would boost China's exports, it said. The chamber maintained the competitiveness of domestic iron and steel companies came from relatively low production and management costs rather than government subsidies. As the prices for iron ore and shipping charges keep rising, the export prices for China's steel products were also constantly climbing and in some cases even more expensive than exports from other countries. Customs figures show the average price for China's steel exports to the European Union rose by 27.3 percent from January to September over the same period last year and are still rising. September alone saw a rise of 3.7 percent from August. "Take a closer look at China's steel exports to the European Union, one would find that most of the products were generic or low-end products indigenous EU manufacturers wouldn't manufacture. China's exports were actually complementary to the EU market and accorded with the interests of some EU customers," said the statement. The chamber said it was not proper for the Eurofer to file such anti-dumping applications while dialogue with the Chinese steel industry was under way. The Ministry of Commerce also voiced regrets over the anti-dumping applications on Monday and hoped to solve the issue through dialogue and negotiation. It hoped the European Commission would refrain from adopting anti-dumping measures. A statement released by the China Iron and Steel Association on Tuesday said it would organize domestic enterprises when necessary to answer the appeal and use legal means to defend the legitimate interests of local industries. The Brussels-based Eurofer requested late October the imposition of anti-dumping measures on imports from China, including stainless steel cold-rolled flat products and hot-dipped metallic coated sheet and strip steel from China. Eurofer claimed massive volumes have been dumped on the EU market at dumping margins of up to 40 percent, bringing down EU domestic prices by up to 25 percent and making life for European steel producer harder.

By | 2008-03-08 00:00:00

Zhongyou BSS Petropipe Co Limited a subsidiary of the Baoji Petroleum Steel Pipe Co Ltd of China has placed an order with SMS Meer a company of the SMS group for the supply of a large diameter pipe mill. The new mill employing the JCOE® process developed by SMS Meer will have an annual capacity of up to 150,000 tonnes and be the most modern of its kind in China. It will be used to produce longitudinal SAW steel pipes with diameters from 508 mm to 1,422 mm and wall thicknesses up to 40 mm in lengths of maximal 12.2 m and material grades up to X100. The plant is to be built in the Qinhuangdao special economic zone near Beijing and is scheduled to go into production in summer 2008. Crucial aspects for the placement of the order were the advantages offered by the JCOE® process with the JCO® pipe forming press as main forming aggregate. The JCOE® process has established itself on the market worldwide in competition with the UOE process and three roll bending process due to its higher flexibility with high product quality and lower investment costs. It has been employed in ten pipe mills to date in recent years. SMS Meer is to supply the key machines for the plant, such as the plate edge miller, the technological components of the crimping press, the JCO® pipe forming press, a hydraulically adjustable tack welding machine and a mechanical expander. The pipes produced are to be employed in pipeline construction and meet all the relevant API standards. They are intended for use in pipelines transporting oil and gas from Chinese rigs in the northeast of the country to the major cities in the east and southeast.

By | 2008-03-08 00:00:00

BEIJING -- China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) forecasted that China's crude steel output in 2007 would reach 480 million tons, up 14 percent compared with the previous year. Luo Bingsheng, executive vice chairman of the CISA, said China's crude steel output in the first nine months stood at 363 million tons, up 17.61 percent, and pig iron output increased by 15.68 percent to 346 million tons. Driven by increasing international steel prices, China's steel export amounted to 49.5 million tons in the same period, up 73.2 percent, of which crude steel accounted for more than 40 percent of the total. Meanwhile, international shipping prices for iron ore have increased significantly, such as spot-contract commission for delivery from Brazil to China which has rocketed to 88.3 U.S. dollars per ton. Comparing with the commission on long-term contracts which is usually below 20 dollars, such an increase is "unusual and unreasonable", CISA said. Luo encouraged steel and shipping companies to establish long-term cooperation and build more ships to enhance iron ore shipping capability. China's iron ore transporting volume takes up 46 percent of the world's total, far exceeding its shipping capability, which has only 30 bulk carriers for now, or four percent of the world's total, Luo said. CISA predicted that China's steel export would decline in the fourth quarter over the previous year.

By | 2008-03-08 00:00:00

It is reported that Chinese Ministry of Commerce will enact a regulation to restrict the amount of steel trader and an official forecast that only 200 steel traders or less will be left. This regulations aims to better the qualification of traders and raise the access threshold of steel grade to 30,000 tonnes per year but it is estimated that about 12,000 qualified traders who engaged in steel import and export nowadays. If this enactment takes effect, steel export volume would be effectively restrained and also market will be regulated, especially to avoid fierce competition and negative price war. China¡¯s ministry of commerce encourages small traders to cooperate with big traders and meanwhile will push more rules on market administration to counter the pressure from trade surplus and environmental protection.

By | 2008-03-08 00:00:00

Interfax China reported that major Chinese stainless steel mills will raise prices for core products by CNY 500 (USD 67) per tonne in November from the October price level in response to recent rises in nickel prices. The rise is the latest in a series of recent price increases. Major Chinese steel mills raised their ex works prices for core products by CNY 1,500 (USD 200) a tonne in October when compared to September 2007. According to a notice released by t Taigang Stainless Steel Co Ltd, the listed arm of China's largest stainless steel mill Taiyuan Iron and Steel Group, it will raise ex works prices for core products, including 304 series cold rolled and hot rolled sheet, by CNY 500 (USD 66.76) a tonne in November when compared to October. However, the company noted that ex works prices for its 400 series cold rolled and hot rolled sheet will be unchanged next month. As per common practice, other major stainless steel mills such as Baosteel Stainless, Ningbo Baoxin Stainless, POSCO Zhangjiagang and POSCO Qingdao will raise their own prices at the same time to the same level as TISCO.