Posted on 13 Sep 2021
Over September 3-9, blast furnace capacity utilization rate among China’s 247 steel mills nationwide under Mysteel’s survey weakened again after one week of edging up, down 0.68 percentage point on week to 84.77%, mainly as mills had scheduled maintenance on their facilities under the wide-range steel output trimming in China, a market source commented Friday.
Over the survey period, these mills’ molten iron output decreased accordingly by 18,100 tonnes/day on week to 2.26 million t/d in total, and the operational rate of their blast furnaces under the survey edged down after staying unchanged for two weeks by 0.65 percentage point to 73.57% as of September 9.
“Some steel mills in East and Northeast China have launched maintenance in accordance with their local governments’ requirements, and a total of 13 blast furnaces had been pulled offline this week,” a Shanghai-based market watcher noted.
Lower steel output indicated less iron ore demand and mills’ growing cautiousness in their in-house iron ore stocks and procurement, and over September 3-9, these mills’ daily consumption of imported iron ore decreased by 15,500 t/d on week to 2.77 million t/d on average, Mysteel data showed.
Mysteel SEADEX 62% Australian Fines, as a result, decrease by $10.25/dmt on week to $129.6dmt CFR Qingdao as of September 9.
By September 9, their inventories of imported iron ore in all forms including the volumes at steelworks, port stockyards and on the water, had decreased for the seventh straight week, down another 142,400 tonnes to 104.1 million tonnes, which would be sufficient for around 37.63 days of consumption, or 0.16 day longer on week.
Over the same survey period, Mysteel’s smaller-scale study on China’s 163 steel plants showed that their blast furnace capacity utilization rate nudged down for the second week, easing another 0.87 percentage point on week to 68.08% as of September 9.
Source:Mysteel Global
