Posted on 13 Oct 2021
Daily crude steel output among the 247 Chinese blast-furnace (BF) and 71 electric-arc-furnace (EAF) mills under Mysteel’s survey recovered slightly to 2.6 million tonnes/day on average over the first ten days of October, picking up by 16,100 t/d or 0.6% from late September, due to the eased power rationing in some regions of the country during that period.
The result for early October ended the continuous decline since late July, as some steel mills in North China's Inner Mongolia, East China's Shandong and Jiangsu, and Southwest China's Yunnan province had resumed production from the start of October after local governments partly relaxed measures limited power use after the intensified restrictions in September, Mysteel Global learned.
This was in line with Mysteel's other weekly surveys, which showed that the capacity utilization of the 247 BF mills averaged 79.94% over October 1-7, up 1.25 percentage points from the prior survey period after sliding for four consecutive weeks, and that of the 71 EAF mills also increased by 3.63 percentage points on week to 47.76% during the same period after the decreases of the prior three weeks.
Despite the recovery, daily crude steel output in early October was still 11.2% lower compared with one year earlier, as many Chinese steel producers were still under power restrictions with the on-going curbs on energy use among energy-intensive industries, Mysteel Global noted.
Domestic steel prices grew further after the National Day holiday, supported by hopes of better demand with the replenishment of end-users after the break, and the limited growth in steel output because of the power constraints.
As of October 9, a make-up working day in China after the one-week holiday, the country's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar had refreshed its new high since May 17 to reach Yuan 6,039/tonne ($938/t) and including the 13% VAT, up Yuan 114/t from that on September 30, according to Mysteel's assessment.
Source:Mysteel Global
