Posted on 14 Mar 2022
Over March 4-10, the blast furnace (BF) capacity utilization rate among the 247 steel mills under Mysteel's regular survey reversed down after two weeks of inclines, down 1.71 percentage points on week to 79.78% as of March 10, as some mills in North China reined in their output amid the ongoing restrictive measures.
Consequently, daily molten iron output among these 247 mills during the latest survey period eased accordingly by 47,000 tonnes/day on week to 2.15 million t/d in total, and their BF operational rate ended three weeks of inclines, down by 3.87 percentage points on week to 70.85% as of March 10.
Starting March 3, some mills in northern areas of China, especially those in Tangshan in Hebei province, have been requested to halt some of their BFs to improve local air quality during the Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing and Zhangjiakou of Hebei over March 3-14 and the "Two Sessions" political meetings in Beijing, Mysteel Global noted.
In tandem, a total of 43 blast furnaces were idled during Mysteel's survey period. Also, over March 4-10, the daily consumption of imported iron ore among the 247 surveyed mills edged down accordingly by 85,600 t/d on week to 2.65 million t/d on average.
On the other hand, total inventories of imported iron ore in all forms including the volumes at steelworks, port stockyards and on the water held by these 247 mills decreased too, down 207,900 tonnes on week to 110.1 million tonnes, as the recent frequent production restrictions dampened these mills' buying enthusiasm, according to a Shanghai-based market watcher.
The stocks were sufficient to last the surveyed mills for 41.6 days of use, or 1.23 days longer than during the previous survey period.
Source:Mysteel Global
