Posted on 26 Aug 2025
Production of hot-rolled coils (HRC) among the 37 Chinese flat steel producers Mysteel regularly monitors jumped by 96,500 tonnes or 3.1% on week to total 3.25 million tonnes over August 14-20, the results of the latest weekly production survey show.
With profit margins on flat product sales still high, steelmakers either brought idled units back into operation or reduced the duration of their maintenance stoppages, which resulted in higher operation and capacity utilization rates among the surveyed mills.
Hot-rolling capacity utilization among the 37 mills Mysteel regularly monitors rose by 2.46 percentage points on week to average 83.09%, while their average operational rate also increased by 1.56 percentage points to sit at 81.25%, according to the survey findings.
Despite the output rise, HRC inventories held by the 37 surveyed mills as of August 20 had edged down by 10,900 tonnes or 1.4% to 788,900 tonnes, while stocks held by traders at commercial warehouses in the 33 cities nationwide that Mysteel tracks had increased by 1.8% or 50,600 tonnes to 2.83 million tonnes.
The reason for the discrepancy in inventory trends is unclear but the rise in traders' stocks could reflect the tepid domestic demand for HRC, while the dip in stocks held by mills could partly reflect their HRC export activity, Mysteel Global notes.
Meanwhile, that tepid domestic demand for hot coils led China's spot and futures prices for HRC to lose ground last week. As of August 22, the spot price of Q235 4.75mm HRC under Mysteel's assessment had edged lower by Yuan 40/tonne ($5.6/t) or 1.1% on week to Yuan 3,458/t including the VAT.
The same day, the Shanghai Futures Exchange's most-traded HRC futures contract for October delivery closed the daytime trading session at Yuan 3,361/t, down by a larger Yuan 78/t or 2.3% on week, the exchange's data showed.
Source:Mysteel Global
