Saudi semis imports halve in November, market recovering
Saudi Arabian semi-finished products imports, over 99% of which were square billet, halved on-year in November 2016 to 50,168 tonnes, according to General Authority for Statistics data monitored by Kallanish.
The drop was due to China and Oman each supplying zero compared to 39,329t and 10,722t respectively in November 2015, while Ukraine-origin imports were flat at 49,868t.
Saudi imports of rebar and wire rod, meanwhile, plunged -58% on-year in November to 29,806t (see Kallanish 23 January). Saudi Arabia’s largest producer, Sabic, reported a 502% surge in crude steel output to 496,000t in November. This suggests Saudi mills recovered market share from imports that month, and favoured producing liquid steel to converting merchant semis.
Saudi semis imports in the eleven months through November thus declined -29% on-year to 1.07 million tonnes. This was mainly due to a -36% reduction in Ukraine-origin supply to 363,876t and -69% plunge in Bahrain-origin procurement to 77,877t. Moreover, Iran and Qatar each supplied zero compared to 93,645t and 93,339t respectively a year earlier.
Eleven-month supply from China, however, increased 20% on-year to 474,760t. Procurement from Brazil rose 94% to 96,270t, supply from Oman rose 32% to 41,927t and Malaysia supplied 11,567t versus zero a year earlier.
Saudi steel demand has been hit significantly by reduced government infrastructure spending due to lower oil revenues. However, there are signs that projects may be gradually resuming and Saudi mills could be benefiting from this, coupled with reduced import competition owing to higher Chinese steel prices. Sabic's January-November output rose 1.3% to 5.02mt after a very weak first half of 2016.
In the eleven months through November Saudi rebar and rod imports fell -2% on-year to 858,894t, bringing to an end the rising year-to-date trend seen since last May.
Source: Kallanish.com