Posted on 09 Jun 2025
Daily crude steel output among the member mills of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) declined faster during the last 11 days of May and hit a four-month low of 2.09 million tonnes/day on average, according to the association's latest release on June 5.
The late-May result was lower by 4.9% or 108,000 tonnes/day from mid-May where the average was only 0.3% lower than during early May, the CISA numbers indicated.
The new data also showed that the daily output for late May was also lower by 12.7% than the same period last year.
Market sources explained that during late May, more Chinese steel mills had commenced maintenance stoppages on furnaces in response to the dull demand from end-users with the arrival of summer and the fall in consumption.
Based on its member mills' results, CISA estimated the country's daily crude steel output nationwide at 2.65 million t/d over May 21-31, or also down 4.9% from mid-May.
On the other hand, lower output saw finished steel stocks at the association's member mills thin by 6.4% or 1.1 million tonnes from May 20 to reach 15.3 million tonnes as of May 31, according to CISA. The tonnage was still 5% higher on year, however.
China's domestic steel demand appeared slack in general during late May, as suggested by Mysteel's survey among the 237 trading houses it monitors across the country. This showed that their spot trading of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil dropped by 8.2% or 8,749 t/d from mid-May's average to 98,264 t/d on average.
Meanwhile, low demand had also weighed on domestic steel prices over the same period. On May 30, Mysteel assessed the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, for example, at Yuan 3,230/tonne ($450/t) and including the 13% VAT, softening by Yuan 72/t from the price on May 20.
Source:Mysteel Global
