Posted on 08 Jun 2026
More than 40% of Chinese blast-furnace (BF) steel mills have lost money on finished steel sales recently, Mysteel Global learned. This is mainly due to the heftier production costs they're incurring from higher prices of major steelmaking raw materials, coupled with weakening finished steel prices.
As of June 4, about 59.3% of the 247 of the BF mills Mysteel samples reported that they were making a profit on finished steel sales, lower by 3 percentage points from one week earlier or by 4.8 percentage points from the recent high in mid-May, according to Mysteel's latest weekly survey.
China's coke prices have increased steadily since late May as stringent safety inspections of coal mines in North China's Shanxi have tightened supplies of coking coal and coke. This has lifted the production costs of domestic steel mills and impacted their profit margins.
Mysteel's assessment showed that on June 4, the national composite coke price was at Yuan 1,631/tonne ($241/t) including the 13% VAT, higher by Yuan 58.5/t on week.
Over May 29-June 4, the cost of making hot metal among the 114 Chinese BF mills under Mysteel's regular tracking averaged Yuan 2,316/t excluding the 13% VAT, increasing by Yuan 4/t from one week earlier.
In parallel, China's finished steel prices have weakened further recently due to lackluster demand from end-users during summer, a factor putting more pressure on the operations of domestic steel mills, Mysteel Global noted.
For example, on June 4 Mysteel assessed the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar at Yuan 3,412/t including the 13% VAT, slipping by Yuan 9/t on week, while the average price of Q235 4.75mm HRC nationwide under Mysteel's assessment had declined by Yuan 8/t on week to Yuan 3,414/t including the 13% VAT.
Finished steel sales in the physical market remain dull, with the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses nationwide under Mysteel's tracking averaging 92,881 tonnes/day over May 29-June 4, still a low level despite the on-week rise of 5,591 t/d.
During the first week of June last year, the spot trading volume of the same long steel products among the same 237 traders sampled by Mysteel nationwide averaged 105,398 tonnes/day.
Source:Mysteel Global
