Posted on 21 Mar 2022
Over March 11-17, the blast furnace capacity utilization rate among China's 247 steel mills under Mysteel's survey reversed from the previous week of decline, up 2.1 percentage points on week to 81.88% as of March 17, as some steelmakers had resumed their operations after the Winter Paralympic Games and the "Two Sessions" political meetings in Beijing ended last week.
During the latest survey period, these 247 surveyed mills produced 2.21 million tonnes/day of molten iron on average, up 56,400 t/d on week, while their BF operational rate also recovered by a large 8.06 percentage points on week to 78.91% as of March 17.
The relaxation of the production curbs imposed on steel mills in northern, central and eastern areas of China had encouraged more mills to gradually resume their production, Mysteel Global noted.
Moreover, some local governments, especially those in North China, had also lifted their previous operation curbs imposed among industrial enterprises during the winter heating season, which led more steelmakers to ramp up production, according to a Shanghai-based market watcher.
In tandem, a total of 64 blast furnaces had been brought back on stream during the latest survey period, according to her.
Over March 11-17, the daily consumption of imported iron ore among the 247 surveyed mills edged up accordingly by 68,000 t/d on week to 2.72 million t/d on average, Mysteel's data showed.
By March 17, 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 increased by 1.75 million tonnes on week to 111.9 million tonnes. The tonnage was sufficient to last the surveyed mills for 41.21 days of use, or 0.4 day shorter than that of Mysteel's previous survey period.
Source:Mysteel Global
