Posted on 10 Apr 2023
The blast furnace (BF) capacity utilization rate among China's 247 steel mills under Mysteel's regular survey had climbed for the 13th week in a row, up by another 0.64 percentage point on week to 91.2% over March 31-April 6, as some of the steel mills had been maintaining high output despite recent decreases in domestic steel prices.
Over the survey period, these 247 mills' daily hot metal output grew accordingly by another 17,200 tonnes/day on week to 2.45 million t/d in total, and the operational rate among their BFs rose too by 0.43 percentage point on week to 84.3%, indicating that the number of operating BFs at these mills remained steady.
The overall stable steel operations and production in the country despite the softening steel prices was mainly due to the fact that some mills' steel margins were still in the positive zone, market sources shared.
For example, Mysteel's survey showed that 54.6% of the 247 sampled mills still managed to enjoy some healthy margins by Thursday, though China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar under Mysteel's assessment fell by Yuan 96/tonne ($14/t) on week to Yuan 4,179/t and including the 13% VAT by the same day.
On the other hand, finished steel stocks at the traders kept reducing over the survey period, though at a slower pace, as suggested by Mysteel's survey.
The total inventories of finished steel including rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate at the commercial warehouses in 132 Chinese cities under Mysteel's tracking declined for the seventh straight week to 23.1 million tonnes over March 31-April 6, but the pace slowed to a 0.8% on-week drop as compared with the 2.2% fall in the previous week.
Higher steel output saw the daily consumption of imported iron ore among the 247 mills edge up by 19,100 t/d on week to 2.97 million t/d on average over March 31-April 6, Mysteel's data showed.
As of April 6, the total inventories of imported iron ore in all forms including the volumes at steelworks, port stockyards and on the water held by these surveyed mills climbed by 542,800 tonnes on week to 91.83 million tonnes. The total tonnage would be sufficient for 30.9 days of use, or 0.02 day shorter than the previous survey week.
Source:Mysteel Global
