Posted on 30 Jan 2023
The blast furnace (BF) capacity utilization rate among the 247 Chinese steel mills had gained for the third straight week over January 20-27, up by another 1.05 percentage points on week to 84.15%, as some mills resumed their BF operations after the maintenance, Mysteel's latest survey showed.
Over the survey period, these 247 mills' daily hot metal output also edged up by 28,300 tonnes/day on week to average 2.27 million t/d, and the operational rate of their BFs gained further by 0.72 percentage point on week to 76.69% as of January 27, according to Mysteel's survey.
"Some Chinese steel mills have resumed or ramped up their steel output in anticipation of a quicker revival in steel demand from end-users and a return of industrial activities to normal soon after the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday break," a Shanghai-based market analyst shared her observation.
Moreover, the recent recovery in China's finished steel prices also improved some domestic steelmakers' profit margins, encouraging them to keep producing during the survey week, Mysteel Global noted.
For example, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar under Mysteel's assessment increased by Yuan 26/tonne ($3.8/t) from January 20 to Yuan 4,285/t and including the 13% VAT as of January 28.
Meanwhile, Mysteel's survey showed that 32.47% of the 247 sampled mills managed to enjoy some healthy profit margins by Thursday, up by 5.2 percentage points on week.
Higher BF hot metal output, together with stalled iron ore trading during the holiday, saw the inventories of all imported iron ore at the 247 mills – including the tonnage at their plants, the ports, and on the water – dwindle to 92.28 million tonnes as of January 27, 11.44 million tonnes less than those by January 19.
The tonnage will be sufficient for 33.17 days of consumption among the 247 sampled mills, or 4.56 days shorter than the prior survey period, according to the database.
Source:Mysteel Global
