1. A senior executive of the World Steel Association said on Tuesday that global steel demand is expected to grow by 1.7% in 2024 due to the recovery of manufacturing activity, after previously predicting consumption to rebound by 2.3% this year.
2. Data from China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) showed that as of mid-May 2023, key statistics for steel companies produced 22.4546 million tons of crude steel, 19.953 million tons of pig iron, and 21.3969 million tons of steel. Among them, crude steel production was 2.2455 million tons per day, down 0.24% from the previous month; pig iron production was 1.9953 million tons per day, down 0.52% from the previous month; and steel production was 2.1397 million tons per day, up 2.53% from the previous month.
3. Dahua JiXian stated that once the market realizes that palm oil supply will be tight in the second half of this year, even in 2024, crude palm oil prices may continue to rise. The estimated price of crude palm oil for 2023 and 2024 has been raised to 4,000 Malaysian ringgit per tonne.
4. The National Association of Grain Exporters of Brazil (Anec) said that soybean exports from Brazil are expected to reach 15.9 million tonnes in May, up from the previous week’s forecast of 15.76 million tonnes; soybean meal exports are expected to reach 2.49 million tonnes, down from the previous week’s forecast of 2.6 million tonnes; corn exports are expected to reach 387,009 tonnes, down from the previous week’s forecast of 570,618 tonnes.
5. The Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange announced that starting from the night session of May 25th, 2023, the transaction fees for soda ash futures contracts 2309 and 2401 will be adjusted to RMB 7 per lot, and the intraday closing fees will also be adjusted to RMB 7 per lot.
