Posted on 27 Apr 2026
Daily crude steel output among the member mills of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) held largely steady during April 11-20, with the tonnage edging up by a negligible 0.4% or 7,000 tonnes/day from this month's first ten days to average 2.11 million t/d, according to the latest release from the association on April 23.
Despite the small gain, the average represented a large on-year decline of 5.3% compared with the production level over the corresponding period last year, the results of the CISA survey indicated.
Based on the same dataset, the association estimated that daily crude steel output among both member mills and non-member mills averaged 2.8 million t/d during the period, higher by 2.4% from early-April, CISA noted in the report.
On the other hand, daily finished steel output among CISA member mills averaged 2.02 million t/d over the middle ten days of this month, climbing by 3.1% or 61,000 t/d from April 1-10, the same release showed.
The association offers no explanation to the production gain, but bullish market sentiment recently has improved the profitability of finished steel sales for mills by strengthening the prices of those items, Mysteel Global noted. This in turn no doubt bolstered the steelmakers' keenness for production and consequently led them to ramp up output.
For instance, Mysteel assessed the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar on April 20 at Yuan 3,368/tonne ($493/t), surging by Yuan 46/t from the level on April 10.
The higher output of finished steel has led to a moderate accumulation of finished steel inventories held by the CISA member mills, with the volume held by those steelmakers mounting by 6.4% or 1.12 million tonnes from the level on April 10 to reach 18.63 million tonnes as of April 20, another release published on Thursday pointed out.
On the other hand, the price hike has stimulated spot transactions, leading to a steady decline in retail inventories. Specifically, finished steel inventories stockpiled in commercial warehouses in the 21 cities that CISA regularly checks totaled 10.6 million tonnes as of April 20, down by 2% or 220,000 tonnes from ten days prior, another CISA release published on the same day showed.
Source:Mysteel Global
