Steel exports from China held above 10 million tons
in July as mills in the largest supplier stepped up shipments amid a rebound in
prices even as global trade tensions escalate.
Overseas shipments increased 5.8 percent on-year to
10.3 million metric tons, compared with 10.9 million tons in June, according to
China’s customs administration. Exports in the first seven months rose 8.5
percent to 67.4 million tons, the largest volume for the period, which has seen
gains every year since 2009.
While China has pledged to cut overcapacity, it
continues to export its surplus at record levels amid the slowest growth in
decades, prompting nations from India to the U.S. to impose protectionist
measures. Premier Li Keqiang has defended the country’s growing presence on
overseas steel markets, saying last month that overcapacity isn’t the fault of
a single country.
“Orders from abroad have held up relatively well as
steelmakers in China have a cost advantage over other producers,” Dang Man, an
analyst at Maike Futures Co. in Xi’an, said before the data. “Attention is
still on global trade friction as the number of cases against Chinese exports
is quite large.”
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The nation isn’t being overly affected by the ballooning set of
trade cases because most have been brought by countries that don’t import large
quantities from China, with many targeting very specific products, Morgan
Stanley said in a note earlier this month. To insulate local mills further from
the global glut, India last week extended its floor price regime on steel imports
for a further two months.
The surge in steel exports this year has helped boost
demand for iron ore. China’s imports of the steel-making raw material gained
8.1 percent in the first seven months to 582 million tons. In July, inbound
cargoes were 88.4 million tons, the second-highest ever, from 81.6 million in
June, customs data showed.
Source: Bloomberg