Blast furnace utilization among China’s 247 steel mills under Mysteel’s regular survey eased for the second week over February 11-17, slipping by another 1.13 percentage points on week to 75.44% as of February 17, as steel producers maintained low output amid the series of restrictive measures.
Consequently, daily molten iron output among these 247 mills during the latest survey period eased by 30,300 tonnes/day to 2.03 million t/d in total, though the operational rate of their furnaces ended two weeks of declines, reversing up by 1.39 percentage points on week to 69.58% after a few furnaces were brought back on stream.
With the relaxation of tougher restrictions in Hebei province’s Tangshan since February 13, some blast furnaces, especially some small-sized units, have resumed operation, resulting in the recovery in operational rate, Mysteel Global noted.
However, restrictions on steelmakers in those parts of North China near Winter Olympics venues remained in place, keeping the lid on steel output there, according to a Shanghai-based market watcher. Moreover, beside those mills in North China, others elsewhere also halted some of their furnaces to conduct regular maintenance, she said.
In tandem, 18 blast furnaces resumed production last week, Mysteel’s survey showed, while another eight furnaces were idled over the survey period.
Also, over February 11-17, daily consumption of imported iron ore among the 247 surveyed steel mills decreased accordingly by 49,700 t/d on week to 2.48 million t/d on average, Mysteel data showed.
As of February 17, total inventories of imported iron ore in all forms including the volumes at steelworks, port stockyards and on the water held by these 247 mills edged up by 301,900 tonnes on week to 110.6 million tonnes. The stocks were sufficient to last the surveyed mills for 44.55 days of use, or 0.99 day longer than during the previous survey period.
Written by Lindsey Liu, liulingxian@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
Leave a Reply