Posted on 01 Mar 2021
Blast furnace capacity utilization among the 247 steel mills across China surveyed by Mysteel remained largely stable at 92.28% as of February 25, or up merely 0.1 percentage point on week, as some Chinese steel mills had been gradually ramping up their output after the routine maintenance or the Chinese New Year holiday, according to Mysteel’s latest survey.
Over February 19-25, these mills’ molten iron output nudged up accordingly by 2,500 tonnes/day on week to 2.46 million t/d, while the operational rate of their blast furnaces nudged down by 0.13 percentage point on week to 83.85% as of February 25.
“One week after CNY holiday, more Chinese steel mills have resumed their normal production after the annual maintenance over the break, thanks to the recent reviving steel demand from end-users and recent strengthening in the domestic steel prices,” a Shanghai-based market analyst commented.
Tangshan in North China’s Hebei province has imposed a new round of restrictions on its local steel mills since February 16 and intensified on February 19 and 23 respectively because of poor air quality, but it has not appeared as strict as expected, and higher steel output outside Tangshan also offset the reduction in Tangshan, he added.
Over February 22-25, the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among 237 Chinese traders monitored by Mysteel averaged 98,874 t/d, a marked improvement from the 7,000-30,000 t/d level in the last few working days before the CNY holiday over February 11-17. Mysteel halted daily trading volume tracking over February 8-21 due to the stagnancy in the market.
As of February 25, the domestic price of HRB400 20mm dia rebar assessed by Mysteel gained a total of Yuan 204/tonne ($31.5/t) from February 18 to Yuan 4,682/t and including the 13% VAT.
By February 25, inventories of imported iron ore at the 247 mills including the volumes at plants, port stockyards and on the water reversed up by 1.53 million tonnes on week to 115.5 million tonnes, or being sufficient for 37.76 days of consumption at their present daily consumption rate, which was 0.31 day longer on week.
Over February 19-25, Mysteel’s smaller-scale study on 163 steel plants across China showed that their blast furnace capacity utilization rate showed a different trend, which reversed down by 0.37 percentage point on week to 77.39%, Mysteel’s data show.
Source:Mysteel Global
