Posted on 12 May 2026
Hot-rolled coil (HRC) production among the 37 Chinese steelmakers regularly surveyed by Mysteel declined by 46,000 tonnes or 1.5% on week during April 30-May 6 to 3.01 million tonnes, mainly because an East China-based steel mill had slowed operations for maintenance last week, the findings of Mysteel’s survey show.
During the survey week, the capacity utilization rate of the hot strip mills operated by the 37 sampled mills decreased 1.17 percentage points to 76.8%, while their average operation rate also fell by 1.56 percentage points to 78.13%.
Most of the survey week coincided with China's Labor Day holiday over May 1-5 when traders and end-buyers had stopped work, causing transactions to wane. With steel firms opting to maintain production during the break, inevitably hot coil inventories held by the 37 surveyed mills rose, with Mysteel assessing the volume higher by 11,900 tonnes or 1.5% on week at 826,000 tonnes as of May 7.
Hot coil stocks at the 194 commercial warehouses nationwide also inched up by a tiny 0.7% or 29,300 tonnes on week to 4.69 million tonnes as of the same day, Mysteel's tracking showed.
However, as China reopened for business after the break, firm steelmaking raw material prices together with the restocking needs of coil users after the holiday lent support to post-holiday HRC prices.
On May 9, a substitute working day in China due to the holiday, Mysteel assessed the national spot price of Q235 4.75mm HRC higher by a large Yuan 78/tonne ($11.5/t) on week at Yuan 3,492/t including the 13% VAT.
Similarly, on May 8 the most-traded HRC contract for October delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange also closed at Yuan 3,473/t, higher by Yuan 60/t or 1.8% from the settlement price one week before, the bourse's data showed.
Source:Mysteel Global
