Posted on 02 Aug 2021
Stocks of imported iron ore sintering fines at China’s 64 steel mills under Mysteel’s regular survey dipped by 188,000 tonnes or 1.2% from July 15 to reach 15.9 million tonnes by July 28, new data shows. The central government’s order that steelmakers must reduce production for the rest of this year made most mills more cautious about purchasing or replenishing, market sources said Thursday.
“Most domestic steel mills’ buying interest cooled, given their concerns about having to reduce production, and many are now focusing on consuming their inventories at hand first, rather than restocking much,” a Shanghai-based market watcher told Mysteel Global.
Meanwhile, wide-ranging steel production curbs nationwide saw the daily consumption of imported fines by the 64 surveyed steel mills also dip by 1.2% on fortnight to an average of 537,500 tonnes/day, according to Mysteel’s assessment.
“Several steel mills in (East China’s) Shandong province have been ordered by their local government to reduce production,” the Shanghai source said. Moreover, over July 18-23, some sintering machines in Tangshan city in North China’s Hebei province had also been idled as part of pollution reduction measures, Mysteel Global noted.
Consequently, over the survey period, consumption among those mills in Shandong and Tangshan moved down by 2.9% and 2.2% to average 74,000 t/d and 113,500 t/d respectively, Mysteel’s survey showed.
Over July 16-22, the blast furnace capacity utilization rate among the 247 steel mills nationwide under Mysteel’s other survey reversed down from two weeks of inclines, easing by 0.51 percentage point on week to 88.04%.
Based on the steelmakers’ decreasing stocks and consumption rates, the existing tonnage of iron ore sintering fines should be enough to keep them operating for around 26 days, unchanged from the previous two weeks, the survey findings indicated.
Source:Mysteel Global
