China's surging steel, iron ore inventories at odds with price gains
Something is not quite adding up in China's iron and steel markets, with the reasons for the current rally in prices for both commodities jarring uncomfortably with actual data.
Iron ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange on Tuesday hit the highest since the contract was launched in 2013, reaching an intraday peak of 741.5 yuan ($108) a tonne, ending 3.2 percent up on the day, taking the gain since the beginning of 2016 to 258 percent.
The simple explanation is that iron ore is merely tracking gains in steel rebar futures, the main Chinese benchmark traded on the Shanghai Futures Exchange.
Steel futures closed on Tuesday at 3,589 yuan a tonne, having earlier reached their highest level since February 2014. Their gain since the start of 2016 stands at a fraction over 100 percent.
The main reasons cited for the rally in steel are strong growth in demand because of Chinese infrastructure spending and fears over supply, given Beijing's plans to cut excess capacity and enforce stricter pollution controls.
While it's fair to say demand for steel has been boosted by increased spending, and that steel capacity has been cut, there is little evidence that this is creating any shortage of the alloy.
Production is still strong, with China's crude steel output reaching 67.2 million tonnes in January, up 7.4 percent from the same month a year earlier, the World Steel Association said on Tuesday.
Production for 2016 was 808.4 million tonnes, up 1.2 percent on the prior year, confounding expectations at the start of last year that output would decline as the industry was forced to rationalise capacity.
Some 45 million tonnes of excess capacity was shut in 2016, part of a plan to shutter as much as 150 million tonnes by 2020.
But it's clear that shutting excess capacity has had zero impact on steel mills' ability to increase production.
In fact, it may have the opposite effect, as the capacity that has been closed was older, less efficient and generally loss-making, meaning the mills currently operating are more profitable and thus incentivised to boost output.
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