Posted on 19 Sep 2025
China's total rebar output during January-August period rose by a small 0.3% on year to reach 128.7 million tonnes, according to the latest release by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on September 17.
The rise, though tiny, brought an end to seven straight months of on-year declines, the data show. Rebar output in August alone topped 15.4 million tonnes, surging by 23.6% on year and by 1.5% from July, according to the NBS statistics.
One reason for the on-year surge last month is the low basis of comparison with August 2024. In late June last year, Beijing had approved new national standards for certain types of rebar, and although the new standards did not become effective from late September last year, steelmakers began halting production of old-standard bars from July.
By July 31 last year, some 38 steel mills across China had unveiled plans for maintenance stoppages during mid-July to end-August that would take some 3.4 million tonnes out of the market, as Mysteel Global reported.
Mysteel's survey on rebar rolling capacity utilization rate among the 137 Chinese steel mills echoed the NBS findings, with the former sitting at 48.35% in late-August, up by 2.08 percentage points from July but by a larger 12.78 percentage points from August last year.
Similarly, the operational rate of these reached 44.59% in late-August, up by just 0.66 percentage points on month but by a large 11.8 percentage points on year.
Downstream demand for construction steel items remained lackluster during August, as torrential rains brought by frequent typhoons and scorching weather impacted outdoor construction activities, as reported. The combined trading volume of long steel items including rebars among the 237 trading houses under Mysteel's tracking averaged 98,150 tonnes/day in August, declining by 11.5% from August last year.
Mysteel assessed the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar in late-August at Yuan 3,326/t including the 13% VAT, down by a large Yuan 81/t from late-July, driven down by the weakened market fundamentals combining the absence of positive macroeconomic stimulus.
Like rebar, China's total finished steel output continued to rise. Output in August climbed 9.7% on year to 122.8 million tonnes, driving up the rise of total production over January-August to 5.5% on year and reaching 982.2 million tonnes, the NBS data showed.
Source:Mysteel Global
