Posted on 30 Dec 2024
The number of profitable blast-furnace steel mills in China increased slightly during the past week, mainly thanks to the recovery in the country's finished steel prices and the decrease in mills' production cost, Mysteel Global learned.
Mysteel's latest weekly survey among the 247 BF steel mills nationwide showed that as of December 26, the ratio of steelmakers earning positive margins on finished steel sales registered 49.78%, edging up 1.3 percentage points on week, though the ratio was 2.17 percentage points lower compared with one month earlier.
China's finished steel prices kept rangebound this week, as fundamentals had yet to show any significant changes amidst the continuous fall in steel output. Demand from end-users remained weak due to the usual winter slowdown.
For example, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a pointer to domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,503/tonne ($480/t) including the 13% VAT as of December 26, rising by Yuan 17/t on week.
Mysteel's other weekly survey showed that over December 19-25, total production of the five major steel products comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil (HRC), cold-rolled coil (CRC) and medium plate among its sampled steelmakers nationwide touched a three-month low of 8.44 million tonnes, down for the fifth consecutive week and by another 0.8% on week.
Prices of major steelmaking raw materials weakened this week, dragged lower by shrinking demand from Chinese steel mills, which helped to reduce the makers' production costs and guaranteed them profits on finished steel sales, Mysteel Global noted.
Over December 20-26, the average cost of making hot metal among the 114 Chinese mills under Mysteel's tracking registered Yuan 2,537/t excluding the 13% VAT, dipping by Yuan 1/t on week. During the same period, Mysteel's SEADEX 62% Australian Fines iron ore index was assessed at $100.75/dmt CFR Qingdao, lower by $1.4/dmt from one week earlier.
Source:Mysteel Global
