The blast furnace (BF) capacity utilization rate among 247 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel’s regular survey had inched up for the third week over August 12-18, rising by another 2.66 percentage points on week to 83.89%, as more steel producers in North and East China ramped up output further in response to their improving profit margins.
Over the latest survey period, these mills produced an average of 2.26 million tonnes/day of hot metal, up 71,100 t/d on week, while their BF operational rate had also edged up for the third week by another 1.67 percentage points on week to 77.9% as of August 18.
During the week, more steelmakers in northern and eastern regions of China had managed to enjoy some profits from selling steel products after suffering persistent losses, and they continued to actively resume operations after earlier production cutbacks, a Shanghai-based market watcher shared.
Accordingly, a total of 18 blast furnaces had been resumed during the survey period, she added.
Meanwhile, Mysteel’s other survey on these 247 steel mills showed that 62.77% were making profits as of Thursday, or 8.23 percentage points higher than the previous week.
On the other hand, over August 12-18, the daily consumption of imported iron ore among these surveyed mills had increased for the third straight week by another 91,500 t/d on week to 2.75 million t/d on average.
By Thursday, 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 reversed from two weeks of incline, down by 774,300 tonnes on week to 98.43 million tonnes.
The stocks were sufficient to last the surveyed mills for 35.86 days of use, or 1.53 days shorter than during the previous survey period.
Written by Lindsey Liu, liulingxian@mysteel.com
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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