Posted on 08 Sep 2026
Daily crude steel output among the member mills of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) declined markedly during August 21-31, with the tonnage slipping by 4% or 80,000 tonnes/day from the middle ten days of last month to average 1.89 million t/d, according to the latest release from the association on September 6. This was also 3.1% lower than end-August last year, the results showed.
Based on the same dataset, the association estimated that daily crude steel output among all domestic steel mills averaged 2.39 million t/d in late August, dropping by the same 4% from the mid-August period.
On the other hand, daily output of finished steel among CISA member mills averaged 2.01 million t/d over the last eleven days of August, rising by 4.8% or 93,000 t/d from August 11-20, the same release showed.
The association attributed this modest rise primarily to bulk warehousing of finished steel at month-end by several member mills. But even if this factor is excluded, the association's figures indicate that daily finished steel output was still 4% higher than the mid-August level.
Despite higher finished steel output, purchases during late last month picked up as finished steel prices were rising at the time.
As such, many traders and end-users started to replenish finished steel stocks from CISA member mills, resulting in a significant inventory drawdown during the period, Mysteel Global noted.
Specifically, finished steel stocks held by the CISA member mills totaled 16.25 million tonnes as of August 31, lower by a marked 11.4% or 2.08 million tonnes from the level on August 20, data from another CISA release published on the same day revealed.
Nonetheless, compared with end-August last year the tonnage still high by a significant 8.5%, data in the same release indicated.
Meanwhile, the finished steel stocks piled in the commercial warehouses in the 21 Chinese cities the association regularly tracks remained unchanged from the level of August 20 at 9.71 million tonnes as of August 31, another release published last Wednesday showed.
Source:Mysteel Global
