Posted on 02 Nov 2022
China's daily crude steel output shrank further during the last eleven days of October, with the tonnage sliding by another 13,700 tonnes/day or 0.5% from the prior ten days to 2.87 million t/d on average, according to Mysteel's survey among 247 blast-furnace (BF) and 85 electric-arc-furnace (EAF) steel mills nationwide.
The further decrease occurred mainly because some steelmakers, especially BF mills, continued to rein in output in late October, as their profit margins had been squeezed further by the weakness of domestic steel prices, and more steel producers had begun losing money once again, Mysteel Global noted.
For example, the capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF steel mills under Mysteel's regular survey was assessed at 87.64% over October 21-27, down for the second week by another 0.62 percentage point on week.
Mysteel's other weekly survey showed that only 27.71% of the sampled 247 BF steel mills were still profitable over October 21-27, with the rate falling by 10.8 percentage points from the previous week.
Chinese finished steel prices have been steadily weakening since mid-October, reflecting the lower-than-expected demand from local end-users and the negative sentiment in the domestic market.
As of October 31, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,883/tonne ($531/t) including the 13% VAT, sliding by Yuan 156/t on week and marking the lowest since November 2020.
Over October 21-31, the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's regular tracking averaged 152,285 t/d, lower by 4,023 t/d from that for mid-October.
For the whole month of October, daily crude steel output among the surveyed mills decreased by 6,000 t/d or 0.2% on month to 2.88 million t/d on average, but it was still 10.7% higher compared with one year earlier, the survey showed.
Source:Mysteel Global
