China: Blast furnace operating rate at major mills falls rapidly, w-o-w

A survey covering 160 major steel enterprises in China showed that 169 blast furnaces (BF) at 81 plants are on maintenance shutdown. The total BF volume under maintenance is 194,308 cubic metres, and the operating rate of the blast furnaces of these firms is 71.15% by volume. In all, the operating rate of BFs at these firms was 76.97%, which was 2.38% lower than last week.