Monthly data:2018 China Bearing Steel market trend in Feb-will be Steady

As the data shows from China Steel, the output of crude bearing steel reach up to 3.182 million tons from Jan to Dec, 2017, rose by 12.53% compared to 2016. The yields of bearing steel is 3.0146 million tons, which is increased by 7.76% year-on-year growth. Details refer to Pic 1:

1.2 Yields data of The finished steel From Jan to Dec: Increased year-on-year

From Pic 2, the yields from ZHONGXING Bearing Steel(XINYE and XINCHENG), JUNENG and BENTE are the top three companies ahead of others, and these three contributes 59% of the yields.The total yields of bearing steel was still growing , Outputs from JIGANG, Xing Bearing Steel, QINGANG, SUGANG and ZHONGXING Bearing Steel were increased separately, but JUNENG, XINING,QILU and DONGTE bearing steel were decreased slightly.

In January, the price of high-end materials in bearing steel was relatively firm, and the low price resources decreased. The current downstream procurement costs increased significantly over previous years, excessive financial pressure led to a significant slowdown in procurement efforts.With the approaching of the Spring Festival, there is a good chance that the price of bearing steel will be steady in February if there is not any obvious improvement in demand. Some high-end steel mills may slightly push up their prices slightly due to more orders.

In January, the price of imported minerals fell to 72.65 dollars/ton. While the market price of general carbon and rust steel remained  higher to 2052 RMB/ton, which was increased by 3.02% comparing with last month. The price of high carbon ferrochrome remain small consolidation and the average price was 8000 RMB/ton at the end of this month. So its estimate that raw material market run with pressure in February.

3.2 Downstream Industry

Statistics from China Automobile Industry Association: 

Automobile production and sales volume of December, 2017 increased than last month, but the growth rate was lower. From January to December, the year-on-year growth of automobile production and sales increased slightly compared with the previous 12 months. In December, the yields of autos reach to 3.0414 million units, the result is decreased by 1.26% comparing with last year, and decreased by 0.7% year-on-year. Sales volume reaches to 3.0603 million units, the result increased by 3.47% comparing with last year, and increased by 0.1% year-on-year . From January to December, both yields and sales volume is 29.0154 million units and 28.8789 million units, increased by 3.19% and 3.04% year-on-year growth. The growth rate increased by 11.27% and 10.61% from January to December.

3.Conclusion

Looking back at the bearing steel market in January, some materials prices have dropped, the pace of traders Dongchuoshi slow. Given the price difference between GCr15 and 45 # carbon steel is increasing, the steel mills such as Zhongtian, Nangang and Jianlong have reached 800-1100 yuan / ton, making the terminal users more cautious in purchasing. The market is more sentimental. The sales of terminal products such as bearings and bearing tubes have not been much improved. In this regard, the demand growth rate of some bearing steel is restrained.