Posted on 14 Jan 2021
Scrap utilization in steelmaking among the 211 Chinese steel mills Mysteel tracks regularly, grew by 1.36 percentage points on month in December to about 24% on average, according to Mysteel’s latest monthly survey charting scrap consumption among Chinese steelmakers. The survey covers integrated and electric-arc-furnace (EAF) steel producers and those mills using both blast furnace and EAF technologies.
By the end of 2020, these 211 mills held 6.86 million tonnes of steel scrap in inventory, or higher by 1.17 million tonnes from end-November, the survey results showed. Their total steel scrap consumption during December added up to 15.6 million tonnes, climbing by 1.22 million tonnes on month and matching the upward trajectory of domestic steel scrap prices last month.
Among the 211 sampled mills, East China hosts the most with 55 mills, followed by North China hosting 51. Thus, it was mills in East China which consumed the most scrap last month, totalling 5.43 million tonnes, or up 225,000 tonnes on month, according to the survey. Those in North China consumed about 3 million tonnes, or up 415,000 tonnes on month.
The breakdown by steelmaking technology showed that steel scrap utilization among the 130 blast-furnace (BF) steel mills in their steelmaking averaged 17.58% or nearly 8.4 million tonnes of steel scrap in volume, higher by 1.33 percentage points or 803,200 tonnes on month.
The 24 mills operating both the BFs and EAFs used 24.08% of steel scrap or 3.26 million tonnes in crude steel output, up 1.24 percentage points or 224,500 tonnes on month.
The monthly survey confirmed the robust demand for steel scrap among the Chinese steel mills in general. Domestic steel scrap prices have been hovering high, reaching Yuan 2,828.8/tonne ($436.8/t) on delivery and including the 13% VAT as of December 31, according to Mysteel’s assessment, which gained 4% from Yuan 2,719.7/t at end-November or having been hovering at a high level since March 2013.
Source:Mysteel Global
