Posted on 04 Jul 2022
China's daily crude steel output for the last ten days of June fell by a significant 4% from the prior ten days to average 2.82 million tonnes/day, the lowest since mid-April, Mysteel estimated, based on its regular survey among 247 blast-furnace and 85 electric-arc-furnace steel mills nationwide.
The continuous drop was mainly attributed to the fact that more Chinese BF and EAF steel mills had conducted maintenance on their steelmaking facilities or slowed down their production pace during the period, given the losses they were suffering.
Mysteel's other survey showed that capacity utilization among the 247 sampled BF mills decreased further to a two-month low of 87.61% over June 24-30, down another 1.37 percentage points from the prior week. More pronounced was the decline in capacity usage among the 85 EAF mills which slid for the eighth straight week to just 35.59%, lower by 8.26 percentage points on week and marking the lowest since mid-February following Chinese New Year.
Sentiment in the domestic steel market improved somewhat in the last week of June, as the further decrease in output - coupled with an improvement in demand - was seen alleviating the disparity between supply and demand to some extent, Mysteel Global noted.
As of June 30, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, for example, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 4,387/tonne ($655/t) including the 13% VAT, gaining Yuan 35/t from ten days earlier, or higher by Yuan 104/t from the recent low set on June 23.
Over June 21-30, the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's tracking averaged 167,909 t/d, up 35,574 t/d or 26.9% from the average for mid-June.
For the whole month of June, daily crude steel production among the surveyed steel mills averaged 2.92 million t/d, down 22,600 t/d or 0.8% on month, or lower by 4.5% from the same period last year, the survey showed.
Source:Mysteel Global
