Posted on 27 Oct 2023
China's daily crude steel output maintained the downtrend over the middle ten days of October, with the tonnage falling by another 32,700 tonnes/day or 1.1% from the month's early ten days to average 2.95 million t/d, the lowest level since mid-June this year, according to Mysteel's estimate based on its survey of the 247 blast-furnace (BF) and 87 electric-arc-furnace (EAF) steel mills nationwide.
Over October 13-19, the capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF mills Mysteel regularly tracks came in at 90.62%, down for the third consecutive week by another 1.31 percentage points from the previous week.
More Chinese steel producers conducted maintenance on their steelmaking facilities or slowed their production pace in mid-October given their worsened profitability and the overall tepid steel demand from end-users, Mysteel Global learned.
Mysteel's other weekly survey showed that as of October 19, only 19.05% of the 247 steel mills under its tracking could enjoy some profits on finished steel sales, touching the lowest since mid-November 2022.
Although China's steel prices recovered somewhat in mid-October thanks to the improvement in spot sales, the growing production costs in tandem bit on their profitability, Mysteel Global noted.
For example, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment under Mysteel's assessment reached Yuan 3,817/tonne ($522/t) including the 13% VAT on October 20, gaining Yuan 17/t from ten days earlier.
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 registered 151,443 t/d on average over October 11-20, higher by 11,527 t/d from that for early October.
Meanwhile, Mysteel SEADEX 62% Australian Fines had hit $120.6/dmt CFR Qingdao on October 17, before it settled at $115.3/dmt on October 20, still higher by $1/dmt from that on October 10.
Source:Mysteel Global
