Blast furnace capacity utilization among the 247 blast-furnace steel companies across China which Mysteel surveys weekly decreased further by 0.53 percentage point on week to 78.88% over the week of January 10-16, according to Mysteel’s latest survey published on January 17. The use rate was still 2.43 percentage points higher than this time last year, however.
Accordingly, these mills’ daily molten iron output witnessed a decline over the period, slipping by an average of 14,800 tonnes/day on week to 2.21 million t/d as of January 16. The survey results also showed that the operational rate of the sampled blast furnaces remained unchanged on week at 77.58% though this was up by 1.74 percentage points on year.
The decline in furnace utilization was a consequence of the new round of restrictions on the steelmaking operations of mills in Shandong province in East China, that began from around January 10 and were aimed at reducing pollution, as Mysteel Global reported.
Though the curbs were eased from January 13, the resumption of production among some of the impacted steelmakers mid-way through Mysteel’s January 10-16 survey period was not enough to avert the on-week decline in furnace utilization, Mysteel Global notes.
In the near term, blast furnace capacity utilization among the surveyed mills may dip again from the present level as Wu’an and Tangshan cities, both in North China’s Hebei province, have just imposed another round of restrictions on steel mills beginning January 15 and January 16 respectively, because of poor air quality, as Mysteel Global reported.
Over the same period, Mysteel’s survey among a smaller sample of 163 steel plants nationwide saw their blast furnace capacity utilization rate reach 77.03% however, higher by a moderate 0.53 percentage point on week.
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