Posted on 08 Apr 2026
Daily crude steel output among the member mills of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) declined mildly during March 21-31 to average 2.03 million tonnes/day, down by 1.7% or 35,000 t/d from the previous ten-day period, according to the latest release from the association on April 3.
The production level showed a larger on-year decline of 6.2% compared to the same eleven days last year, CISA indicated in the release.
Based on its member' performance, the association estimated that daily crude steel output among both member mills and non-member mills in China averaged 2.59 million t/d during the period, retreating by the same 1.7% from mid-March, the CISA report showed.
By volume, member mills in East China contributed the most to the production decline among the six regions that the association monitors. Members in this region produced an average of 584,000 t/d over the late-March period, easing significantly by 4.5% or 27,000 t/d from the middle ten days of March, the CISA survey findings indicated.
On the other hand, daily finished steel output among the member mills averaged 1.98 million t/d over March 11-20, rising by 3.8% or 74,000 t/d from March 11-20, the same release showed.
The association attributed the overall increase to several member mills performing bulk month-end finished steel warehousing. Since CISA's production volume is collected based on actual warehouse intake during the reporting period, logistical delays and centralized month-end warehousing practices by member mills may inflate CISA's production figures for the last ten days of each month, Mysteel Global noted.
But even excluding the warehousing and end-month settlement issues, daily finished steel output was still higher by 3.1% from the middle ten days of March, the association statistics show.
Despite the higher output, finished steel stocks held by the CISA member mills totaled 16.55 million tonnes as of March 31, declining by 7.6% or 1.36 million tonnes from March 20, another release issued on the same day indicated.
Similarly, finished steel inventories held by traders in commercial warehouses in the 21 cities that the association regularly checks totaled 11.42 million tonnes as of March 31, nudging down by 1.9% or 220,000 tonnes from eleven days earlier, another CISA release published Friday showed.
Source:Mysteel Global
