DEMAND-- China Demand Lower with Impeding Winter Restriction

摘要

With import growth from India partially offset by falling volumes in China and Korea, AME forecasts global demand for internationally traded metallurgical coal to total around 335Mt in 2018, an increase of 1% year on year. With continued growth from India demand in 2019, AME forecasts global metallurgical coal imports to rise 5% year on year to reach 352Mt. The latest statistics show world crude steel production grew 5.8% year on year to October to 157Mt. January-October production grew 4.7% year on year to 1.5Bt. pig iron production was down 6% month on month to 63.7Mt, but up 9.9% year on year. Pig iron production growth continues to lag crude steel production as a higher proportion of Chinese crude steel is produced by EAF, more scrap is used in the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF), and from the extension of environmental steel production restrictions, which favour EAF over BF/BOF production, beyond winter and beyond northeast China.