Posted on 25 Feb 2026
Hot-rolled coil (HRC) production among the 37 Chinese steelmakers regularly surveyed by Mysteel inched up by 20,500 tonnes to top 3.1 million tonnes during February 12-18, the latest survey results showed.
The survey period partly overlaps this year's Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday that began on February 15 and ended on February 23.
During the CNY break, most integrated mills kept their blast furnaces online while some mills that had undergone maintenance work in the pre-holiday week had resumed operation, Mysteel Global learned. This caused HRC output to rise slightly last week, according to industry watchers.
Consequently, the HRC rolling capacity utilization rate among the sampled mills nudged up by 0.52 percentage point on week to average 79.15% during the survey period, while their average operational rates also moved higher by 1.55 percentage points to 79.68%, according to the findings.
Trading activities came to a standstill during the holiday as most market participants and end-users had left work to celebrate. Consequently, both steelmakers and traders saw a rapid build-up in their hot coil inventories, the data show.
By February 23, HRC stocks held by the surveyed mills had jumped by 135,300 tonnes or 16.9% on week to 933,800 tonnes. Similarly, those stored in the 194 commercial warehouses in the 55 Chinese cities Mysteel monitors had swelled by 16% or 634,900 tonnes to 4.6 million tonnes as of the same day.
During the pre-holiday week, hot coil prices had slipped before levelling out and then holding steady during the remainder of the survey period, with Mysteel assessing the national price of Q235 4.75mm hot coils at Yuan 3,279/tonne ($475.6/t) including the 13% VAT as of February 13.
For this week, HRC prices are likely to drop by Yuan 10-20/t, weighed down by mounting stocks at mills and commercial warehouses, market sources predicted. The recovery in demand will likely be slow as well as some end-user enterprises won't resume business until after China's Lantern Festival on March 3.
However, there will still be upside-room for prices going forward after these firms reopen in early March, Mysteel Global noted.
Source:Mysteel Global
