Posted on 15 Sep 2026
Hot-rolled coil (HRC) production among the 37 Chinese steelmakers surveyed by Mysteel edged down by 45,300 tonnes or 1.5% on week during September 3-9 to total 2.91 million tonnes, Mysteel's latest survey showed. Another mill in North China's Hebei idled a strip mill for an overhaul during the survey week, Mysteel Global learned.
As a result, the average capacity utilization rate for strip mills among the surveyed 37 steelmakers decreased by 1.16 percentage points on week to sit at 74.23% during the survey period, while the average operation rate of these surveyed mills stayed unchanged on week at 79.69%.
Mills were suffering heavy losses, as rising coking coal prices kept eroding their profit margins, forcing them to curb their production and instigate maintenance work, Mysteel's weekly market roundup suggested.
For example, the national composite spot price for coking coal under Mysteel's assessment hovered high at Yuan 2,276.5/tonne ($339/t) on September 11, up by another Yuan 10.5/t on week, though the price increase had slowed significantly compared to the previous few weeks' upward spiral.
By the same day, only around 8% or 19 of the 247 BF steelmakers under Mysteel's monitoring could make some profits when selling their steel products, down from around 30% or 74 from the previous week.
The key downside factor remained the lackluster end-user demand, Mysteel Global learned. As end-buyers maintained purchases on a need-to basis, market participants grew increasingly doubtful about whether consumption of hot coils would see any notable pickup for the rest of the month.
By September 10, retail HRC inventories at traders' yards were still high, with the tonnage sitting in the 194 commercial warehouses Mysteel checks nationwide up 5,800 tonnes or 0.12% at 4.86 million tonnes.
The same day, inventories held by the 37 sampled mills under Mysteel's tracking had decreased by 3.7% or 25,600 tonnes on week to 66,400 tonnes, thanks to mills' efforts to actively transfer their stocks to traders, Mysteel Global noted.
Although major steelmakers such as Baosteel and Ansteel had announced last week they were lifting their HRC list prices for domestic sales in October by Yuan 200/t (around $30/t), this failed to reverse the slide in hot coil prices observed last week.
On September 11, Mysteel assessed the national spot price of Q235B 4.75mm HRC at Yuan 3,344/t including the 13% VAT, lower by Yuan 27/t or 0.8% from a week prior and snapping four straight weeks of rises.
In derivatives markets on Friday, key ferrous commodities including that of hot coil posted across-the-board losses.
The most-traded HRC contract for next January delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed the daytime session on September 11 at Yuan 3,325/t, lower by a marked Yuan 55/t or 1.6% from the settlement price one week earlier and reflecting the cooling market sentiment.
Source:Mysteel Global
