Chinese steel producers saw their hot metal production from blast furnaces (BFs) increase marginally this week as some mills lifted their output amid improved steel margins, Mysteel’s latest survey showed.
During March 29-April 3, the BF capacity utilization rate among the 247 steel mills under Mysteel’s regular tracking averaged 83.61%, gaining 0.85 percentage point on week.
Meanwhile, the daily average hot metal output of these sampled mills increased by 22,700 tonnes/day or 1% on week to reach 2.24 million t/d over the same period, and their average operational rate also rose 1.21 percentage points on week to reach 77.81%, the survey showed.
Domestic steel mills’ success at frequent reductions in the purchase prices for metallurgical coke helped some mills restore profit margins recently, so their enthusiasm for production picked up slightly, Mysteel Global noted.
As of April 3, around 33% steel mills of the 247 sampled steelmakers managed to make some profits on steel sales, higher by some 5 percentage points on week, according to Mysteel’s survey. The profit level was the highest so far this year.
In tandem with the increase in steel production, the daily consumption of imported iron ore among these 247 mills Mysteel tracks also reversed from the prior week’s dip and edged up 29,700 t/d on week to reach 2.73 million t/d.
Despite that, the total inventories of imported iron ore in all forms held by these steelmakers increased still, with iron ore arrivals at domestic ports continuing to mount during the latest survey period, Mysteel’s other survey showed.
By April 3, the imported iron ore stocks at the 247 mills under Mysteel’s survey had risen by 1.3 million tonnes or 1.4% on week to reach 92.8 million tonnes, which would be sufficient to last them for 34 days at their present use rate, longer by 0.1 day from the prior period, as Mysteel assessed.
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between MySteel Global and BigMint.