Posted on 29 Sep 2026
Hot-rolled coil (HRC) production among the 37 Chinese steelmakers surveyed by Mysteel during September 17-23 dipped further by 9,600 tonnes or 0.33% on week to sit at 2.86 million tonnes, the results of Mysteel's latest survey showed.
Widening margin losses on steel sales among blast furnace mills continued to prompt them to rein in production during the past two weeks, causing hot coil output to refresh record lows, Mysteel Global noted.
The average capacity utilization rate for strip mills among the surveyed 37 steelmakers inched down by 0.25 percentage point on week to sit at 72.99% during the survey period. On the other hand, some mills also restarted their hot-rolling lines during the survey week, sending the average operation rate among the 64 production lines of these surveyed mills higher by 1.56 percentage points on week to 79.69%.
Buying activity for hot coils among users such as coated sheet producers remained lukewarm, as most manufacturing firms continue to purchase only on a need-to-buy basis, Mysteel Global learned.
Consequently, HRC inventories held by those 37 sampled mills under Mysteel's tracking had mounted again by 3.7% or 24,900 tonnes on week to reach 697,600 tonnes by September 24.
However, retail HRC inventories at traders' yards continued to dip last week, with the tonnage sitting in the 194 commercial warehouses Mysteel checks nationwide lower by 2.1% on week at 4.68 million tonnes. This helped improve hot coil market fundamentals to a certain extent, though the dealers' stocks were still higher by 15.2% on year.
Overall, the hot coil market in the past week remained in the tug-of-war between downside factors such as a lackluster user demand and elevated retail inventory, and upside elements such as the relatively low output and price support from still-high input costs for mills such as spot coking coal prices.
Mirroring the crosscurrents, on September 24 Mysteel assessed the national spot price of Q235B 4.75mm HRC at Yuan 3,317/tonne ($494/t) including the 13% VAT, lower by a small Yuan 5/t or 0.15% from September 20 – a substitute working day for China's National Day holiday over October 1-7.
The same day, the most-traded HRC contract for next January delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed the daytime session at Yuan 3,298/t, down by Yuan 4/t or 0.12% from the settlement price of September 18. The bourse was closed on September 20, Mysteel Global noted.
Source:Mysteel Global
