With China’s foreign trade in steel steadily picking up after the Chinese New Year holiday lull while international steel prices keep soaring, speculation regarding possible cuts to Chinese export tax rebates on steel has become more intense both in and out of China. The speculation that China may revise tax rebates on China’s certain steel products first arose last December and was sparked by comments that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology wanted to see Chinese crude steel output decline this year – when steel consumption is forecast to ...

Executives at Brazil’s Vale SA, the world’s second largest iron ore producer, said premiums for the commodity were at a “unique moment” and that they were also confident regarding the trajectory of copper in 2021. In a conference call with analysts to discuss the company’s 2020 financial results, executives attributed high iron ore prices to factors including a ban by China on Australian coking coal. Coking coal, like iron ore, is a vital ingredient in steelmaking. “The fact is that there are some extraordinary points here. The first of them ...

Prices of Australian wheat being offered in Asia extended gains this week, with rising freight rates lifting the cost of grain for importers, two traders said on Friday. Australian Premium White wheat was quoted around $318-$320 a tonne, including cost and freight (C&F), to Southeast Asia, up from $310 a few weeks ago. “The freight market is rising so rapidly that prices have risen,” said one of the traders. Australian standard wheat is being offered at $314 a tonne, C&F, while Australian hard wheat is around $325 a tonne. Black ...

The European Commission has opened an investigation to determine whether the current system of EU steel import safeguards should continue after its expiry on June 30, following requests from EU steelmaking nations, according to a Feb. 26 publication in the Official Journal of the EU. Interested parties are being invited to submit their views to the EC within 15 days. A decision on whether the safeguards, based on a tariff-rate-quota system, may or not be continued will be made by June 30, the commission said in the notice. A mill ...

India registered a growth of 7.6 per cent in crude steel production at 10 million tonne (MT) in January 2021, according to World Steel Association (worldsteel). The country had produced 9.3 MT crude steel during the same month last year. ”The production for the 64 countries reporting to the worldsteel was 162.9 MT in January 2021, registering a 4.8 per cent increase compared to January 2020,” the global industry body said in its latest report. China remained the global leader in production of steel in January, registering 6.8 per cent ...

The value of the U.S. dollar weakened substantially since March 2020 and is expected to experience modest deflation in 2021. A weaker dollar generally makes U.S. agricultural products more competitive on the global export market. However, not all commodities are affected equally given the diversity in global export competition and foreign exchange rates. Fundamental factors like tariffs and weather conditions in key agricultural producing regions often dominate market dynamics despite currency headwinds or tailwinds and should not be discounted, according to a new report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange. “U.S. agricultural ...

U.S. agricultural exports have been on a wild ride the past few years, but be prepared for even more volatility, an ag official says. “This (world ag trade) is not going to be smooth. The volatility we’re going to see going forward, as a result of China and everything else going on, is something we all have to wrap our heads around,” said Gregg Doud, immediate past chief agricultural negotiator with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. “This is really important going forward,” he said. Doud spoke Feb. 23 ...

Brazil’s Vale SA logged $4.9 billion in provisions related to the Brumadinho dam disaster in quarterly earnings, but its ferrous metal division turned in a strong performance and the miner was upbeat about the outlook for key products. Some $3.9 billion of the provisions are part of a recently announced $7 billion agreement with prosecutors and the state of Minas Gerais to settle claims stemming from the collapse of the dam in 2019 which killed 270 people. The rest of the settlement will be paid out over a period of ...

China’s benchmark iron ore futures rose on Friday to log its fourth straight week of gains, while steel rebar and hot-rolled coil advanced on higher downstream consumption. Capacity utilisation rates at 247 blast furnaces in China rose to 92.28% this week, the highest since mid-December, data from Mysteel consultancy showed, despite environmental restrictions in Hebei curbing some production. The most actively traded iron ore futures contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, for May delivery, ended up 1.7% at 1,151 yuan ($177.87) per tonne. It rose 3.0% this week and marked ...

A Swedish firm backed by investors including Spotify founder Daniel Ek plans to build a steel production facility in the north of the country that will be powered by what it describes as “the world’s largest green hydrogen plant.” H2 Green Steel, which was established in 2020, will focus on steel made using a “fossil-free manufacturing process” and look to supply European manufacturers with its end product. In an announcement earlier this week the company — which will be headed up by Henrik Henriksson, the current CEO of Scania — ...

Thailand’s Cane and Sugar Corporation or TCSC will issue the country’s first 2021-22 Quota B sugar tender on March 2, around five months earlier than in previous seasons, due to prevailing high global prices and a forecast surge in sugarcane production, trade sources said Feb. 26. The first new crop sugar tenders of the previous two seasons were issued in the first week of August. Around 48,000 mt of Thai HiPol raw sugar for March-May 15 shipment will kickstart the first tender for the new crop raw sugar, the trade ...

Canadian farmers reaped record profits last year and are on track to do the same this year, the federal agriculture ministry said on Thursday, as prices for its top crops soared. Prices of canola hit all-time highs this month, rallying with oilseed rival soybeans, on brisk Chinese buying to produce feed for that country’s rebuilding hog herd. Farm exports in general were stronger last year, the ministry said in a statement. The record profits come despite disruptions to beef and pork production, as COVID-19 infections forced plants to suspend processing, ...

The International Grains Council (IGC) on Thursday raised its forecast for global wheat production in the 2020/21 season, partly reflecting upward revisions for crops in Australia, Kazakhstan and Russia. In its monthly update, the inter-governmental body increased its global wheat crop forecast by 5 million tonnes to 773 million tonnes. The IGC raised its forecast for Australia’s wheat crop to 33.3 million tonnes from a previous forecast of 31.2 million and more than double the prior season’s 15.2 million. Last week, Australia’s chief commodity forecaster said the 2020/21 season would ...

German flat steel stocks dropped further in January, continuing a 33-year low, while long steel stocks picked up slightly, figures by German steel stock association BDS have shown. Although the pace of the month-on-month drop slowed in comparison with the change from November to December 2020, German steel stocks are alarmingly empty and a result of the ongoing material shortage in the market. Flat steel stocks decreased 0.8% on the month to 1.4 million mt in January, seeing a 7.2% year-on-year drop. Long steel stocks increased by 4.7% on the ...

China’s steel prices have risen sharply since the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday. We attribute the increase to economic recovery, high iron ore prices, inventory re-stocking, and seasonal demand expectations. Going forward, POSCO’s share price should pick up on ASP hikes and earnings growth. Thanks to steel price increase, earnings to continue improving through 2Q21 We maintain a Buy rating and TP of W350,000 on POSCO. Our TP equates to a 2021E P/B of 0.65x, and we estimate 2021 DY (based on the Feb 25 closing price) at 3.2% (DPS ...