Iron ore prices increase domestic steel companies "can not afford to hurt"

Yesterday, it was reported that Brazil's Vale, Australia's Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton and other three major mines through the iron ore spot tender to raise the price of minerals; and China's current more than 70% of iron ore needs to be imported, therefore, the three major mine prices The behavior has caused China's steel companies to face the dilemma of rising raw material costs and lower profits, and the performance of related listed steel companies is under pressure. "The price increase of iron ore in the three major mines will definitely have an impact on the raw material cost of China's steel industry." Xu Qiuqiu said that the factors affecting the cost of imported iron ore, in addition to the iron ore price itself, must also consider iron ore. The rising factor of freight rate, although the FOB price of imported ore in June was affected by the diving of steel futures in late May, the decline was intensified, but the sea freight rate increased slightly, and the sea freight was controlled by the three major mines. At present, the freight rates from Australia's Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton to China's Qingdao Port have risen to 7.89 US dollars / ton, an increase of about 0.5 US dollars / ton from May; Brazil's Vale to China's Qingdao Port freight has risen to 20.31 US dollars / Tons, an increase of about US$1/ton from May.
At present, domestic iron and steel enterprises are in a situation of “both squeezed”: on the one hand, steel prices are falling at the same time; on the other hand, while the three major mines strictly control the shipment of iron ore, they use their strong position to conduct spot tenders frequently. So that domestic steel mills and traders come to participate, bid each other, the highest price, and then achieve the purpose of pushing up the price of minerals.

“Because pricing is based on the iron ore index, the game around the price of this index has also become the focus.” Insiders said that the transaction price of the three major mine spot tenders will also become the basis for the iron ore index, so iron ore The index price was pushed up by “spot tendering”.

Cost impact can not be underestimated

Xu Yuqiu said that the impact on the cost of raw materials in China's steel industry is large, because domestic steel producers are not able to pass on the price of iron ore. At present, the demand for China's steel market is not strong. The housing construction project that everyone places great hopes on is actually not obvious for the increase in steel demand. According to estimates, the average demand for steel in the construction of affordable housing is more than 900,000 tons per month, which is equivalent to a daily demand of more than 30,000 tons, while the average daily output of China's steel companies in May reached 1.94 million tons. According to this calculation, the demand for steel products in the construction of affordable housing only accounts for 1.55% of the steel output, so the demand for the steel market is minimal.

"Of course, the impact of iron ore price increases on domestic steel producers is different." Xu Qiuqiu said that large steel mills such as Baosteel are more limited by the impact of iron ore price increases. First, Baosteel owns mines overseas; second, the plant mainly produces high-end varieties such as automobile panels, so it has the ability to pass on costs to the downstream. Some small and medium-sized steel mills, because they have no overseas mines, are mainly producing low-end products, which are relatively negative. The steel companies belonging to the latter account for the majority.

Xu Yuqiu said that from the trend of the future market, due to the current lack of demand in China's steel market, it will curb the rise in import prices, although 63.5% of the mines in India have risen to between 179-181 USD/ton. However, it is estimated that by the end of July, it will fall back to 175-176 US dollars / ton.

Another reason is that although domestic iron ore can only meet the demand of about 34%, its price is about 100 yuan/ton cheaper than that of foreign mines. Therefore, many steel companies have turned to domestic mines for procurement. “The spot price of the three major mines will increase the pressure on the raw material procurement cost of China's steel enterprises, which will cause the steel prices in the first few months to rise, and the increase in the profitability of steel mills will become a short-lived phenomenon. The dilemma of the benefit landslide." Industry insiders expect.

However, another person in the industry believes that the key to the quality of the steel industry in the second half of the year depends on production. At this time, steel mills should reasonably control production and strive to achieve a basic balance between supply and demand. Because the direct result of the increase in production is to increase the demand for raw materials such as ore, the three major mines will also use this demand signal to rapidly increase the price of ore, which will lead to a more embarrassing operation in the later stage of the steel mill. On the other hand, China's steel mills should continue to “go out” to find mines, increase the proportion of overseas equity mines, and increase the channels for importing ore to reverse the current “subject to people” situation.

At the same time, major domestic steel enterprises should fully implement the import iron ore agency system, so that the Steel Association and the three iron ore suppliers will take the initiative to negotiate and enjoy preferential prices. At the same time, it can purify the industry atmosphere, eliminate rent-seeking, and achieve the survival of the fittest. Produce integration effects and energy saving and environmental protection effects.

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