Posted on 11 Mar 2025
Production of hot-rolled coils (HRC) among the 37 Chinese flat steel producers Mysteel regularly monitors decreased for a third consecutive week over February 27-March 5 to 3.12 million tonnes, down by a larger 115,800 tonnes or 3.6% on week, the results of Mysteel's latest production survey show.
The hot-rolling capacity utilization rate among the sampled mills also eased further by 2.96 percentage points to average 79.59% during the same period, the results indicated.
Some steel mills in North and East China had halted hot strip mills to conduct maintenance or slowed their pace of production during the week, resulting in the on-week decrease in HRC output, survey respondents explained.
The recovery in domestic demand (albeit it modest), coupled with rising trade friction targeting Chinese steel products including HRC, have collectively prompted Chinese producers to slow their HRC production, market watchers noted.
During the survey week, the continuous declines in steelmaking raw materials prices also eroded finished steel product prices including that of HRC from the cost side.
As of March 7, China's national price of Q235 4.75mm HRC under Mysteel's assessment had slipped by another 0.5% on week to reach Yuan 3,428/tonne ($472/t) including the VAT.
On the same day, the Shanghai Futures Exchange's most-traded HRC futures contract for May delivery closed the daytime trading session at Yuan 3,363/t, down by another 1.8% on week.
By March 6, HRC inventories held by the 37 surveyed mills had dropped by 3.7% on week to 880,300 tonnes. Similarly, those held by traders at commercial warehouses in the 33 Chinese cities that Mysteel monitors nationwide had dipped by 0.9% on week to 3.41 million tonnes by the same day.
Source:Mysteel Global
