China Watch

• China tightening steel trade financing controls Feb 13, 2013

  Chinese authorities are striving to clean up domestic steel trading in the wake of last year’s warehousing scandals.

• China met coal import prices rise due to Australia flooding Feb 01, 2013

  China’s metallurgical coal import prices rose during the week ended Feb. 1 due to floods in Australia caused by tropical cyclone Oswald.

• China steelmakers expecting weaker results Feb 01, 2013

  Three of China’s biggest steelmakers have warned that they expect poor 2012 earnings, blaming weak demand and lower steel prices amid China’s economic slowdown last year.

• SHFE's crude oil contract to transform trade Jan 30, 2013

  The commodity futures trade in China will be transformed by the Shanghai Futures Exchange’s (SHFE’s) proposed crude oil contract as the exchange looks at how to facilitate offshore involvement, according to Sebastian Pang, head of energy APAC ex-Japan at Newedge Financial Singapore Pte Ltd.

• Secondary aluminum facing tougher output requirements in China Jan 30, 2013

  China might soon double the minimum capacity required for companies to start secondary aluminum production.

• China's aluminum consolidation drive may benefit Chalco Jan 29, 2013

  The drive for industry consolidation and restructuring by China’s leadership is expected to benefit big companies, such as Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. (Chalco), according to market participants.

• China coke output up in ’12, outstrips pig iron, steel Jan 29, 2013

  China’s coke production growth outpaced that of pig iron and crude steel in 2012, gaining 5.2 percent from the previous year to 443.23 million tonnes, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data.

• Notice: E-mail a Friend function on amm.com Jan 24, 2013

  Due to technical difficulties, we have removed the “E-mail a Friend” function from our website and taken away the ability to e-mail comments to colleagues. We hope to have the issue resolved as soon as possible and apologize for any inconvenience.

• China steel demand to rise in ’13 Jan 24, 2013

  Steel demand in China is expected to increase 3.1 percent in 2013, up from 2.5-percent growth in 2012, according to the China Iron and Steel Association (Cisa).

• Chen tapped to step up as Airbus China president Jan 24, 2013

  Airbus China has promoted Eric Chen to president, where he will lead the management team of the subsidiary of European commercial transport builder Airbus SAS.

• Canada completes initial injury probe on galvanized wire Jan 23, 2013

  The Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) has completed its preliminary injury inquiry into a dumping complaint against galvanized steel wire from China, Israel and Spain.

• Commerce rescinds review of steel pipe imports Jan 23, 2013

  The Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA) has rescinded its anti-dumping duty administrative review of imports of circular-welded carbon-quality steel pipe from China from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012.

• China iron ore imports hit record in ’12 Jan 23, 2013

  China generally imported more steelmaking raw materials last year compared with 2011, Chinese customs data show.

• China iron ore production up 14.5% in ’12 Jan 23, 2013

  China’s run-of-mine iron ore output rose 14.5 percent to 1.31 billion tonnes last year from a revised 1.14 billion tonnes in 2011, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data.

• Alcoa sees aluminum ‘essentially balanced’ Jan 22, 2013

  The global aluminum market will be more or less balanced in 2013, with most of the year’s production and demand growth to come from China, according to Tim Reyes, president of Alcoa Materials Management.

• China’s output of crude steel up 3% in 2012 Jan 18, 2013

  China, the world’s largest steelmaker, produced 716.54 million tonnes of crude steel in 2012, up 3.1 percent from the previous year, National Bureau of Statistics data show.

• Scrap imports slow as prices move upward Jan 16, 2013

  Chinese steel mills and traders are reluctant to book overseas scrap cargoes as prices have jumped.

• Chalco unit wins approval for automotive aluminum Jan 16, 2013

  Southwest Aluminium (Group) Co., a unit of Aluminium Corp. of China (Chalco), has become China’s first globally recognized supplier of material for automotive applications.

• US, China are ‘scrap hubs’ to watch in 2013: Stein Jan 16, 2013

  The United States and China will continue to be the driving forces of the global scrap industry, according to one scrap industry executive.

• HKEx charts growth plan for mainland China; commodities key Jan 15, 2013

  A breakthrough in the opening of China’s capital account is likely to be seen first in commodities markets, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. (HKEx) chief executive officer Charles Li said Jan. 15 at a briefing in Hong Kong.

• Chinese organic coated steel subsidized: EU Jan 15, 2013

  China is subsidizing its organic coated steel producers, the European Commission determined this week, paving the way for companies in the region to seek higher import tariffs on Chinese products, according to the Financial Times.

• China coke exports said unlikely to reach previous highs Jan 11, 2013

  Chinese coke exports are not expected to surge to previous high levels despite the removal of a 40-percent tax and quota, industry sources told AMM sister publication Steel First.

• Chinese alumina imports surge Jan 10, 2013

  China’s imports of alumina and copper scrap rose last year, with alumina more than doubling to 5.02 million tonnes while copper scrap gained 3.7 percent from 2011 to 4.86 million tonnes, customs data show.

• China iron ore imports hit record high Jan 10, 2013

  China imported 70.94 million tonnes of iron ore in December, marking a new historical high, as well as a rise of 7.8 percent vs. November, initial customs data show.