Posted on 19 Jan 2026
Daily crude steel output among the member mills of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) averaged some 2 million tonnes/day during January 1-10, higher by a significant 21.6% or by 354,000 t/d from last eleven days of 2025, according to the latest release from the association on January 15.
Despite the jump on output, the average was still lower by 3.3% compared with the first ten days of last year, the data in the same release indicated.
One explanation of the sharp growth is low basis for comparison in late-December last year, when the member mills' output marked the intra-year low for 2025. The decline was "due to maintenance of some steelmaking facilities, production restrictions, and delays in warehousing of some finished steel items among some member mills," explained CISA.
In addition, some steel mills ramped up production during this year's first ten days as their profitability had improved, serving as another reason for the large rebound, commented a market source.
All six regions that CISA monitors logged higher production levels during early January from the level in late-December, with East China contributing the most to the overall output gain by region. Member mills in this region produced 600,000 t/d of crude steel on average over January 1-10, skyrocketing by 37.5% or 163,000 t/d from the prior eleven days, according to the association's release.
Based on the crude steel output of the member mills, CISA estimated that the production level among both member mills and non-member mills over the first ten days this year averaged 2.48 million t/d, increasing by a larger 22.8% from December 21-31.
Meanwhile, finished steel output among the CISA member mills averaged 1.82 million t/d over the early January period, retreating by 3.7% or 70,000 t/d from late-December, statistics in the same release showed.
Despite the lower production level, finished steel stocks held by the member mills recovered in the first ten days of this month, up by 6.4% or 900,000 tonnes from December 31 to 15.04 million tonnes as of January 10, another CISA release also published on Thursday indicated.
Meanwhile, the finished steel stocks held by traders in commercial warehouses in the 21 cities CISA regularly checks totalled 7.11 million tonnes as of January 10, decreasing further but slower by 1.4% or 100,000 tonnes from the previous eleven-day period, data in another CISA release published Tuesday showed. The retail stocks total had fallen by 3.6% or 270,000 tonnes from the mid-December period to 7.21 million tonnes as of December 31, as Mysteel Global reported.
Source:Mysteel Global
