China: BF mills’ output rebounds, profits stay low

• Air pollution-related production restrictions lifted on 9 Nov’25
• Poor profits push some mills to take maintenance shutdowns

Mysteel: After falling for six straight weeks, production among Chinese blast furnace (BF) steel producers rebounded during 7-13 November, as some BFs in northern cities were allowed to be brought back online after most of the production restrictions were lifted on 9 November, Mysteel’s latest survey showed.

During the latest survey period, the average capacity utilisation rate of the 247 steelmakers nationwide under Mysteel’s regular tracking rose about 1 percentage point w-o-w to 88.8%, with their average daily hot metal output also growing by 1.1% from the prior week to 2.37 million tonnes (mnt)/day.

The production curbs imposed on heavy industry firms, including steel mills, in many northern cities to reduce local air pollution were removed late last week. Therefore, many BF steelmakers in the regions were able to restart their blast furnaces this week, driving up the total hot metal production.

In tandem with the rising hot metal production, the total consumption of imported iron ore by the 247 sampled steelmakers during 7-13 November also increased by 1.4% w-o-w to 2.93 mnt/d on average.

Although the overall hot metal output increased with rising operating capacity, more blast furnaces were halted for maintenance than those restarted during the survey period. The average operational rate among the 247 BF mills Mysteel tracks slipped by 0.3 percentage points w-o-w to 82.8% during 7-13 November.

Mainly accountable for the lower operation rate was poor profitability of Chinese steelmakers, as steel prices failed to see any significant improvement during the past week, Mysteel Global notes. As of 13 November, only around 39% of the 247 BF mills Mysteel monitors could make some profits on steel sales, lower by 1 percentage point from a week earlier, the survey showed.

As of the same day, total inventories of imported iron ore in all forms held by the same 247 mills increased by 0.7% w-o-w to 90.8 mnt. These stocks would be sufficient to last the surveyed mills for 31 days at their current usage rate, shorter by 0.2 day from the prior period, according to Mysteel’s assessment.

Note: This article has been written in accordance with a content exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.