Posted on 01 Jul 2022
The daily hot metal output among 247 Chinese steel mills Mysteel regularly tracks is likely to ease in July from the current level, according to Mysteel's lates report released on June 29.
The survey conducted on June 27 indicated that July would see seven sampled blast furnaces (BFs) with a total capacity of around 21,500 tonnes/day have maintenance stoppages since the beginning of the month.
Among them, three BFs will conduct routine maintenance and are estimated to resume production by mid-July, while the production resumption time of the other four is undecided for now.
However, six BFs with a total capacity of 5,800 t/d will resume their production next month. Specifically, three will be brought back on stream at the beginning of July, two will be back on line in the middle of the month, while the last one is estimated to restart even later.
Based on the current survey result, Mysteel estimated the average daily hot metal output among the 247 mills might edge down to 2.35 million t/d in July, down from the average 2.4 million t/d recorded over June 17-23, with the decline in output largely coming from those BFs in North China's Hebei and Northwest China.
In fact, since the second half of June, some domestic integrated steelmakers had started planning to trim their output, and some soon acted in response to the rather thin or even negative finished steel margins. And accordingly, their daily hot metal output dipped slightly over the period.
In the coming month, Mysteel expected that the key factor for Chinese steelmakers to further control, or in turn, lift their production would be the improvement in steel demand rather than margins. If demand for steel remains sluggish, the further decline in steelmakers' daily hot metal output might be foreseeable, the report concluded.
Source:Mysteel Global
