Posted on 23 Jul 2025
Production of hot-rolled coils (HRC) among the 37 Chinese flat steel producers Mysteel regularly monitors dipped slightly during the July 10-16 week, sitting at 3.21 million tonnes, lower by a tiny 0.6% or 20,000 tonnes from the previous week, the results of the weekly production survey show.
Meanwhile, the hot-rolling capacity utilization rate among the 37 sampled mills also inched down by 0.51 percentage points on week to stand at 82.04% during the survey week, while their average operational rate slipped by 1.56% to average 79.69%. The operational rate of the hot strip mills in Mysteel's sample had remained at 81.25% for the past month, Mysteel Global notes.
The small on-week fall in hot coil output was mainly due to overhauls conducted on several rolling lines at mills in northern China, according to the results of Mysteel's survey.
The lower output led to the stocks of hot coils at the 37 mills to decrease by 0.6% or 5,000 tonnes on week to 773,100 tonnes as of July 17. In parallel, the tonnage held by traders at commercial warehouses in the 33 Chinese cities Mysteel checks had also dropped by 0.8% or 21,500 tonnes during the same period to 2.66 million tonnes, after gaining for two consecutive weeks, the data show.
The rise in raw material prices, especially that of iron ore, combined with improved ferrous-market sentiment generally, led HRC prices in both the physical and futures markets to gain strength last week.
On July 21, Mysteel assessed the national price of Q235 4.75mm HRC higher by a large Yuan 128/t ($18/t) on week at Yuan 3,435/tonne including the 13% VAT, a level not seen since early April. On the same day, the most-traded HRC futures contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange for October delivery had increased by 3.6% on week to close the daytime trading session at Yuan 3,394/t.
Source:Mysteel Global
