Posted on 05 Sep 2022
Over August 26-September 1, the blast furnace (BF) capacity utilization rate among 247 Chinese steel mills had increased for the fifth straight week by another 1.56 percentage points on week to 86.83%, as some mills across the country saw higher engagement of their furnaces, according to Mysteel's latest weekly survey.
During the latest survey period, these 247 sampled mills produced 2.34 million tonnes/day of hot metal in total, also up for the fifth week by another 42,000 t/d on week, and their BF operational rate had also increased for the fifth week by another 0.71 percentage point on week to 80.85% as of September 1.
Some BFs in northern and eastern China continued to be brought back on stream during the survey period after the earlier production cutbacks were relaxed, a Shanghai-based market analyst shared her observation.
Consequently, Mysteel's survey found that over August 26-September 1, the consumption of imported iron ore among these 247 surveyed mills edged up by 51,000 t/d on week to 2.83 million t/d.
By September 1, inventories of imported iron ore sintering fines held by these mills including the volumes at plants, port stockyards and on the water edged down by 1.27 million tonnes on week to 97.4 million tonnes.
Although some steelmakers maintained normal operations or even ramped up production, the slow recovery of steel demand from end-users made them still cautious in replenishing iron ore in large quantities, which led to the reduction in their ore inventories at hand, Mysteel Global noted.
The total tonnage would be sufficient for 34.39 days of their use, or 1.09 daysshorter than the previous survey period, according to Mysteel's assessment.
Source:Mysteel Global
