Posted on 25 Jul 2025
Daily crude steel output among the member mills of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) saw an uptick over July 11-20, increasing by 2.1% or 44,000 tonnes/day from the early July period to average 2.14 million t/d, according to CISA's latest update released on July 23. The pace of daily production had slowed fractionally on year by 0.3%, the CISA data show.
Based on the same dataset, CISA estimated China's nationwide daily crude steel output in mid-July at an average of 2.76 million t/d, also higher by 2.1% from the July 1-10 period.
The uptick in the daily crude steel output over the latest ten-day period was mainly attributed to the increased enthusiasm for production shown by the association's member mills after their profit margins on steel sales had improved. This was in line with Mysteel's survey of the 247 Chinese steel mills it regularly tracks, which showed that about 149 of them had earned money on steel sales over July 11-17, the highest number in nearly eight months.
On the demand side, the spot sales of long steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's tracking averaged 94,909 t/d during the same July 11-20 period, down by 7.9% from the prior ten-day period.
The increase in output and tepid steel sales resulted in higher finished steel stocks being held by the CISA member mills, with their inventories rising by 3.9% or 580,000 tonnes from July 10 to reach 15.66 million tonnes by July 20, according to the CISA data. This figure was lower by 3.9% compared with the same period last year, however.
Meanwhile, thanks to some positive macroeconomic news announced by the central government, combined the strong support from steelmaking raw materials prices, domestic finished steel prices continued to surge over July 11-20, according to Mysteel's assessment. For instance, on July 18 Mysteel assessed China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar at Yuan 3,319/tonne ($464/t) including the 13% VAT, rising by Yuan 50/t from the price on July 10.
Source:Mysteel Global
