Posted on 18 Aug 2025
Daily crude steel output among the member mills of China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) rebounded significantly by 4.7% or 92,000 tonnes/day in early-August to average 2.07 million t/d after the brief drop in late-July, according to the latest release from the association on August 14. The daily average was also higher by 3.6% on year, the CISA statistics show.
Based on the same dataset, CISA estimated that nationwide daily crude steel output among both member and non-member mills during August 1-10 averaged 2.68 million t/d, also up by 4.7% from late-July.
The most likely reason for the higher output during this month's first ten days was the recovery in sales margins among the steelmakers, encouraging them to pursue higher output, Mysteel Global notes. Mysteel's weekly assessment among the 247 Chinese steelmakers it regularly tracks showed that on August 8, about 169 of them had earned money on their steel sales in the previous week, accounting for 68.4% of the sampled mills – the highest ratio so far this year.
In addition, after the Typhoon Co-may subsided, steel mills in some parts of China had resumed operations, which also contributed to the production rebound, Mysteel Global notes. Typhoon Co-may made land fall in southeast China's Guangdong province on July 30 bringing bringing strong winds and heavy rains which disrupted logistics and work on construction projects for many days, as reported.
During this month's first ten days, steel demand among end-users was also weakened by the cooling market sentiment and the persisting hot weather that impacted outdoor construction activities. Consequently, the daily trading volume among the 237 steel trading houses Mysteel regularly monitors dropped by 5.4% or 5,747 tonnes/day in early-August compared to the eleven-day period at end-July to average 100,607 t/d.
The increase in output and tepid demand caused inventories held by CISA member mills to mount. According to the CISA data, the total reached 15.07 million tonnes during the ten-day period from August 1, swelling by 2% or 290,000 tonnes compared to July 21-31. This figure was lower by 5.2% compared with the same period last year, however.
Source:Mysteel Global
