Posted on 11 Sep 2020
The blast furnace capacity utilization rate among China’s 247 steelmakers dipped for the fourth week, down another 0.21 percentage point on week over September 4-10 but still at the plateau, as most of the Chinese steel mills had been producing steadily on the expectation of robust demand in the near term and the remaining positive margins.
During the latest survey period, the capacity utilization eased to 94.31%, still a rather high level since Mysteel updated the survey samples in January 2019, and these mills’ daily molten iron output nudged down accordingly by 5,500 tonne/day on week to 2.51 million t/d in total as of September 10.
The operational rates of the furnaces dipped by 0.52 percentage point on week to 90.89% during the survey period, according to Mysteel’s database.
“Market participants are still optimistic about domestic steel demand in the near term, as the construction activities will continue picking up the pace with the balmy autumn coming,” a Shanghai-based market analyst told Mysteel Global.
Spot trading volume of rebar and wire rod, and bar-in-coil among the 237 traders Mysteel checks across China averaged 213,267 t/d over September 4-10,almost matching the level a year ago.
Meanwhile, “the Chinese steel mills are still enjoying positive margins of Yuan 100-200/tonne ($14.7-29.4/t) in general for finished steel sales, good enough for them to maintain theirproduction,” the Shanghai source added.
As of September 10, inventories of all imported iron ore at the 247 mills – including the tonnage at their plants, the ports, and on the water – increased for the third week by another 1.34 million tonnes on week to 111.8 million tonnes or for 35.88 days of consumption, 0.55 day longer on week, partly as their daily consumption of imported fines fell for the fourth week by another 11,000 t/d on week to 3.12 million t/d in total, according to Mysteel’s survey.
Over September 4-10, a small-scale study of 163 blast-furnace steel plants across China showed that their furnace capacity utilization decreased for the fifth week by 0.47 percentage point on week to 77.96%, Mysteel’s data showed.
Written by Lindsey Liu, liulingxian@mysteel.com
Edited by Hongmei Li, li.hongmei@mysteel.com
Source:Mysteel Global
