Posted on 22 Nov 2022
China's daily crude steel output continued declining during the middle ten days of November, with the volume down by another 52,200 tonnes/day or 1.9% from the prior ten days to average 2.76 million t/d, according to Mysteel's survey among 247 blast-furnace (BF) and 85 electric-arc-furnace (EAF) steel mills nationwide.
Some steel mills in northern and eastern China idled steelmaking facilities or conducted maintenance to help improve air quality or to meet local governments' requests for production constraints, leading to the further decrease in the country's crude steel output.
Meanwhile, the poor profit margins that domestic steel producers earned on finished steel sales also dampened their enthusiasm for production to some extent, Mysteel Global learned.
Mysteel's other survey showed that the capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF steel mills under its regular tracking, had headed south for the fifth consecutive week to a three-month low of 83.36% over November 11-17, down another 0.73 percentage point from the previous week.
China's steel prices in the physical market recovered further in mid-November thanks to the improved sentiment in the domestic market with the steady consumption of end-users and better demand for speculation, Mysteel Global noted.
As of November 18, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,968/tonne ($554/t) including the 13% VAT, higher by Yuan 63/t from that on November 10.
Over November 11-20, 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 survey registered 167,144 t/d on average, only dipping by 910 t/d from early November.
Source:Mysteel Global
