Posted on 17 Jul 2025
Daily crude steel output among the member mills of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) continued to decline over July 1-10, dropping by 1.5% or 32,000 tonnes/day from the last ten days of June to average 2.1 million tonnes/day the lowest in a month, according to CISA's latest update released on July 16. The daily output was also down 2.6% compared with the same period last year.
Market sources attributed the decline to steelmakers in North China's Tangshan - the country's steel-producing hub - continuing to curb their operations on blast furnaces.
CISA tracks its member mills' production on a ten-day basis to gauge operational trends, Mysteel Global notes. Based on this latest dataset, the association estimated China's total daily crude steel output in early July at 2.71 million tonnes/day, also down 1.5% from June 21-30.
CISA's member mills – comprising over 200 large- and medium-sized steel producers nationwide – produced 71.94 million tonnes of crude steel in May, accounting for 83.1% of China's total crude steel output, Mysteel Global learned.
As of July 10, lower output also saw finished steel stocks at the CISA member mills thin slightly by 2.4% or 380,000 tonnes from June 30 to 15.07 million tonnes, the CISA data indicated. This result was also down 2.1% on year.
On the demand side, the spot sales of long steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese trading houses Mysteel tracks showed that their trading volume averaged only 103,090 tonnes/day in early July. The average was hovering at a low level despite a modest gain of 3.4% from the previous ten days' average, with activity mainly suppressed by the summer off-season for steel consumption. The volume was lower by 16.7% from the same period last year, Mysteel's data showed.
Meanwhile, China's domestic finished steel prices showed moderate strength in early July, buoyed by upbeat macroeconomic sentiment and firm steelmaking raw material costs. On July 10, Mysteel assessed China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, an indicator of the country's steel-market sentiment, at Yuan 3,269/tonne ($455/t) and including the 13% VAT, rising by Yuan 58/t from the price on June 30.
Source:Mysteel Global
