Posted on 14 Feb 2022
Daily crude steel production among the 247 Chinese blast-furnace and 71 electric-arc-furnace steel mills under Mysteel's regular survey moved down further over the first ten days of February to touch a new low of 2.35 million tonnes/day on average. The record was the lowest since Mysteel started the survey in January 2018.
The latest result was 147,800 t/d or 5.9% lower from that for late January, as production at many BF steel mills in North China's Shanxi and Hebei, Central China's Henan and East China's Shandong was restricted to improve air quality due to the Winter Olympic Games being held in and around Beijing over February 4-20.
Meanwhile, most EAF steelmakers had halted production during the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday over January 31-February 6, Mysteel Global noted.
Mysteel's other survey showed that capacity utilization among the 247 BF mills reversed down over January 28-February 10 after seven weeks of inclines, dropping by 4.94 percentage points from the previous week to 76.57%. Capacity use among the 71 EAF mills had also plummeted to a two-year low of 1.65% as of February 2.
However, domestic steel prices increased steadily after the CNY break - buoyed by positive sentiment in the domestic market - though demand from end-users has not seen any significant recovery as many end-users have yet to return to the market.
As of February 10, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar was assessed by Mysteel at a three-month high of Yuan 5,003/tonne ($786/t) including the 13% VAT, up for the fourth consecutive day and gaining a total of Yuan 186/t since January 30.
Shagang Group, China's largest privately-owned steel producer headquartered in East China's Jiangsu province, announced on February 11 it was raising the ex-works prices of all its major long steel products by Yuan 100/t for sales over February 11-20. The move was seen as a sign of optimism among domestic steel mills, as Mysteel Global reported.
Source:Mysteel Global
