Posted on 16 Jun 2026
Hot-rolled coil (HRC) production among the 37 Chinese steelmakers regularly surveyed by Mysteel edged up by a small 1.5% on week to 3 million tonnes during June 4-10, the results of Mysteel's latest survey showed.
Most integrated steel producers operating hot strip mills could enjoy some positive margins on hot coil sales during the week, which buoyed the steelmakers' enthusiasm for production.
The average capacity utilization rate among the surveyed strip mills rose by 1.1 percentage points on week to 76.52% during June 4-10, while their operation rate also increased by 1.56 percentage points to 79.69%, according to the survey results.
Against the small rise in HRC output, hot coil demand slowed during the sample week, reflecting the summer consumption lull, with manufacturing firms adopting a low inventory strategy and only buying enough hot coils to meet their immediate production needs, market sources explained.
By June 11, HRC inventories in the 194 commercial warehouses nationwide that Mysteel monitors had edged up by 8,300 tonnes or 0.18% on week to reach 4.6 million tonnes, higher by a large 28% on year, Mysteel Global noted.
Meanwhile, the stocks of coils held by the 37 surveyed mills had barely budged, with the volume inching down by 0.2% or 1,400 tonnes on week to 712,000 tonnes as of the same day.
Although rising coking coal and metallurgical coke prices still managed to offer some support for steel prices, weak demand and mounting HRC inventories continue to drag spot-market prices of the flat steel lower.
On June 12, Mysteel assessed the national spot price of Q235 4.75mm HRC at Yuan 3,398/t ($503/t) including the 13% VAT, down by Yuan 14/t on week.
The same day, the most-traded HRC contract for October delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed at Yuan 3,379/t, up by a paltry Yuan 1/t or 0.03% from the settlement price one week earlier, the exchange's data showed.
Source:Mysteel Global
