Posted on 17 Sep 2024
Production among blast furnace (BF) steelmakers in China increased for the second straight week over September 6-12, as mills observed a quick rebound in domestic steel prices this week, while steel demand from end-users also recovered amid the upbeat sentiment, Mysteel's survey showed.
During the latest survey period, the BF capacity utilization rate among the 247 steel producers under Mysteel's regular tracking gained 0.29 percentage point on week to reach 83.89%, though their operational rate stayed unchanged from the previous week at 77.63%.
Accordingly, the daily hot metal output among these steel mills increased by 0.4% on week to 2.23 million tonnes/day over the same period, according to the survey.
The firm gains in spot steel prices brought profits to a few more steelmakers in China, prompting some to lift their production, Mysteel Global learned.
For example, as of September 12, the national spot price for HRB400E 20mm diameter rebar was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,337/tonne ($468.9/t) including the 13% VAT, higher by 2.4% on week. By the same day, some 6% of the 247 steel mills Mysteel tracks managed to earn some money on steel sales, higher by 2 percentage points from a week earlier.
Moreover, spot steel trading became much more active this week, which also encouraged steelmakers to increase output, Mysteel Global noted. Mysteel's tracking showed the daily trading volume of construction steel including rebar, wire rod, and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese trading houses averaged 127,125 t/d during the first four days of this week, higher by a significant 30% than the average for the same period last week.
In tandem with the growth in their hot metal production, the daily consumption of imported iron ore by the 247 steelmakers also climbed 0.5% on week to reach 2.75 million t/d over September 6-12, Mysteel's survey found.
As of September 12, the total inventories of imported iron ore in all forms held by the same 247 mills ended a three-week drop and increased by 2.3 million tonnes or 2.6% on week to reach 90.9 million tonnes, which would be sufficient to last them for 33 days at their current usage rate, longer by 0.7 day than the previous period, Mysteel assessed.
Source:Mysteel Global
