Blast furnace capacity utilization among China’s 247 steel mills showed signs of recovery from three weeks of dips, though it was uncertain yet as the incline was merely 0.17 percentage point on week to 85.89% over August 6-12, as some steel mills in Tangshan, North China’s Hebei province, posted higher engagement of their furnaces after the maintenance, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey.
Over August 6-12, these 247 mills produced 2.29 million tonnes/day of molten iron in total on average, also up 4,500 t/d on week, and the operational rate of their blast furnaces increased for the second week by another 0.39 percentage point on week to 75%.
Some blast furnaces in Tangshan had been brought back on stream during the survey period after the completion of the scheduled maintenance, a Shanghai-based market analyst shared her observation, confirming no conflict against the local authority’s ongoing curbing.
“These blast furnaces are owned by the mills that meet ultra-low emission requirements and thus being freed from output trimming for this year,” she explained, adding that nationwide, steel mills are all obeying their local authorities’ orders to cut down on their production as part of Beijing’s efforts to achieve lower steel output on year for 2021.
Over the latest survey period, daily imported iron ore consumption among the 247 steel mills, accordingly, recovered modestly from four weeks of decreases, nudging up by 1,600 t/d on week to 2.81 million t/d on average.
As of August 12, inventories of imported iron ore in all forms at the 247 mills including all the volumes at steelworks, port stockyards and on the water, however, eased for the third week by 265,600 tonnes to 107.4 million tonnes, due to their cautiousness amid output trimming and higher daily consumption and the volume will be sufficient for around 38.28 days of consumption, or 0.12 day shorter on week at the present daily consumption rate.
Over August 6-12, Mysteel’s smaller-scale study among 163 blast-furnace steel plants across China showed that their furnace capacity utilization increased for the third straight week by another 0.55 percentage point on week to 69.82%, according to the database.
Written by Lindsey Liu, liulingxian@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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