Over April 1-7, the blast furnace capacity utilization rate among the Chinese 247 steel mills under Mysteel’s regular survey rebounded from the previous weeks of decline, up 1.19 percentage points on week to 84.95% as of April 7, as some steelmakers in northern China have resumed operations.
During the survey period, the 247 steel mills produced 2.3 million tonnes/day of molten iron on average, up by 32,100 t/d on week accordingly, while their BF operational rate also reversed up by 1.82 percentage points on week to 79.27% as of April 7.
“With the gradual relaxation of previous restrictive measures introduced by local governments to control the virus spread, transportation disruptions – especially in some northern areas of China – have been largely eased. This enabled some mills to secure additional raw materials to maintain their production,” a Shanghai-based market watcher told Mysteel Global.
Moreover, some steelmakers have also resumed production after observing maintenance stoppages over the prior week, according to her.
While for some mills in East China, the ongoing restrictions on transportation and the battle against the COVID-19 resurgence continued to force them to rein in output, Mysteel Global noted.
In tandem, 20 blast furnaces resumed production last week, while another seven furnaces were idled over the survey period, according to Mysteel’s survey.
Also, over April 1-7, the daily consumption of imported iron ore among the 247 surveyed mills increased accordingly by 29,300 t/d on week to 2.82 million t/d on average, Mysteel data showed.
By April 7, 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 decreased by 1.05 million tonnes on week to 107.1 million tonnes. The tonnage was sufficient to last the surveyed mills for 38.01 days of use, or 0.78 day shorter than that of Mysteel’s 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.
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