Some situations about steel pipe market

In the first quarter, China exported 14.29 million tons of steel, down 16.0% year on year. In the whole year of 2019, the decline was 7.3%, which was further expanded. Since March, the international epidemic has continued to spread, and overseas steel demand of agriculture greenhouse has dropped sharply, making it difficult for steel exports to receive orders. At the same time, machinery, automobile, home appliances, shipbuilding and other industries to decline in exports, steel exports were also a big impact. Affected by the overseas epidemic, foreign steel demand has dropped sharply, leading export enterprises to receive new orders in March and April significantly reduced month-on-month. Since the end of March, it is common for overseas orders to delay the delivery, and there are also some requirements to reduce the number of orders, or even cancel the orders, which have a negative impact on China’s steel exports.

From March to April, the number of new and delayed orders, the second quarter of China’s steel exports of single span greenhouse will still have a significant decline compared with the same period of the first quarter. In the first quarter, the sales revenue of key member enterprises of the association was 891.6 billion yuan, down 5.6% year on year. Total profit was 18.3 billion yuan, down 50.8% year on year. The sales margin was 2.05%, down 1.89 percentage year on year. Of this, profit in March was 5.8 billion yuan, up from the previous month. The decline in first-quarter profits was expected, but exceeded expectations. From the actual settlement price of enterprises in the first quarter, the price of long wood decreased by 136 yuan/ton year on year, a decrease of 3.89%. The price of long wood has fallen more than that of sheet metal, mainly due to the sales and prices of construction steel. With the epidemic under effective control and the resumption of work and production accelerating, it is expected that the macroeconomic operation situation in the second quarter will be significantly better than that in the first quarter. The situation of curtain wall price is expected to further improve, the steel price is expected to stabilize and rise and the industry benefits will also improve.
This year, the peak of steel inventory significantly increased. Although the inventory began to decline from mid-March, by the end of March, the steel mill inventory and social inventory were 18.07 million tons and 19.6 million tons respectively, still higher than the same period in previous years. Inventory remains high, affecting the smooth operation of the market. If the enterprise production intensity exceeds the market demand, the process of unitized curtain wall system will be very difficult. At the same time, high inventory occupies a large amount of funds, affecting the enterprise’s capital turnover. In the current situation, the maintenance of market stability is the common desire of the steel industry.