Posted on 19 Aug 2024
Blast furnace (BF) production among Chinese steel producers declined for the fourth straight week with increasing maintenance stoppages during August 9-15, while the further slide in finished steel prices kept aggravating mills' losses, Mysteel's survey showed.
During the latest survey period, the average BF capacity utilization rate among the 247 steel producers under Mysteel's regular tracking lost 1.1 percentage points from the prior week to reach 85.92%, while their daily hot metal output averaged 2.29 million tonnes/day, lower by 1.3% on week.
Over the same period, the average operational rate of these sampled mills also dropped by 1.37 percentage points on week to 78.84%, the survey showed.
The hefty losses on steel sales forced more steelmakers across the country to reduce or stop production, Mysteel Global noted. Northwest, Southeast, and East China all witnessed local steel mills halt operations to conduct maintenance works this week, according to the survey.
By August 15, only around 5% of the 247 steelmakers Mysteel tracks could earn some money on steel sales, unchanged from a week earlier.
On the same day, China's national spot price for HRB400E 20mm dia rebar was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,207/tonne ($447/t) including the 13% VAT, lower by a marked 4% on week amid the intensifying pessimism in the market.
With their production falling, these integrated steelmakers' immediate demand for iron ore waned as well, Mysteel Global noted. During August 9-15, the daily consumption of imported iron ore among the sampled 247 steelmakers averaged 2.8 million t/d, lower by 1.2% on week, according to Mysteel's survey.
On the other hand, the total inventories of imported iron ore in all forms held by the same surveyed steelmakers ended a four-week drop and rebounded by 0.3% on week to 96.7 million tonnes as of August 15.
The existing stocks would be sufficient to last these mills for 32.3 days at their current usage rate, longer by 0.5 day from the previous period, Mysteel assessed.
Source:Mysteel Global
