MySteel: Production among Chinese blast furnace (BF) steel producers increased this week as maintenance works were finished in some mills, Mysteel’s latest survey showed. Continuous recovery of steel demand also lifted steelmakers’ production activity, Mysteel Global noted.
Over February 21-27, the average capacity utilization rate of the 247 BF steel mills under Mysteel’s tracking ended a two-week drop and rebounded by 0.2 percentage point on week to reach 85.6%, with their combined daily output of hot metal rising 0.2% on week to 2.28 million tonnes/day.
During the same period, the operational rates among these sampled mills averaged 78.3%, higher by 0.6 percentage point from the previous week, the survey showed.
Some mills brought their idled blast furnaces back onstream after completing their maintenance, and the total capacity ignited was larger than that of the blown-off furnaces among other mills this week, Mysteel Global learned.
Consequently, the total consumption of imported iron ore by the 247 BF steelmakers under Mysteel’s survey went up by 0.4% on week to average 2.84 million t/d over 21-27 February 2025.
More steelmakers are expected to raise their production in the coming weeks since China’s steel consumption will enter the traditional peak season in spring as March approaches, Mysteel’s other survey showed.
Moreover, the decline of iron ore and coke prices during this week eased the input costs incurred by domestic BF steelmakers, allowing the mills to make some profits even though steel prices lost ground too, Mysteel’s data showed.
By 27 February, around half of the 247 BF steel mills Mysteel tracks could earn profits on steel sales, largely unchanged from the previous week.
As of the same day, the total inventories of imported iron ore held by the same 247 steelmakers also stayed flat on week at 91.7 million tonnes, which would be sufficient to last them for 32.3 days at their current usage rate, shorter by 0.1 day from the previous period, according to Mysteel’s assessment.
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between MySteel Global and BigMint.
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