Blast furnace capacity utilization rate among 247 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel’s survey changed little over April 2-8, inching up merely 0.02 percentage point on week to 86.94%, indicating that most of the surveyed mills had been maintaining their production paces when steel margins were healthy.
Over the period, the 247 steel mills’ daily molten iron output inched up accordingly by 600 tonne/day on week to 2.31 million t/d in total, and the operational rate of their blast furnaces rose slightly too by 0.39 percentage point on week to 77.86%, according to the survey.
“After the restriction by Tangshan in North China’s Hebei province on local mills on March 20, no other regions have imposed similar curbing measures, so all the mills have been operating as they have been for profitmaking,” a Shanghai-based market watcher commented.
In the first week of April, the rallies in the domestic steel prices and the continuing declines in finished steel stocks had boosted the confidence of the Chinese steelmakers outside Tangshan to sustain their operational levels, to maintain high production, Mysteel Global noted.
The national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, for example, was at Yuan 5,122/t including the VAT as of April 8, or Yuan 198/t higher on week, Mysteel’s assessment showed, and on the same day, Mysteel’s survey on five major finished steel products stocks at the traders in the 132 Chinese cities fell for the fifth successive week by another 4.3% on week to 28.4 million tonnes, indicating the robust demand. The five products comprise rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil (HRC), cold-rolled coil and medium plate.
By April 8, inventories of imported iron ore at the 247 mills – including the volumes at plants, port stockyards and on the water – reverse down by 196,100 tonnes on week to 114.7 million tonnes, which was sufficient for 39.87 days of consumption, or 0.09 days shorter on week.
Over the same survey period, Mysteel’s smaller-scale study among 163 BF steel plants across China also showed an on-week incline of 0.88 percentage point in their BF capacity utilization to 71.54% as of April 8, the data shows.
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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