Posted on 10 Feb 2025
Daily crude steel output among the member mills of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) increased further over January 21-31, up by 1.8% or 37,000 tonnes/day from the middle ten days of January to hit a six-month high of 2.11 million t/d on average, according to the association's latest release on Friday.
Market sources attributed the rise in daily output to the fact that CISA members had maintained production on blast furnaces (BFs) during late January to capitalise on sustained profits.
Mysteel's survey among the 247 Chinese BF mills it regularly tracks also showed that their capacity utilization rate reached 85.76% as of February 5, higher by 1.12 percentage points compared to the last survey period before the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday (over January 28-February 4).
However, CISA member mills' daily crude steel output in late January was still 3% lower than the corresponding period last year, according to the association's data.
Based on the performance of its member steelmakers, CISA estimated the country's daily crude steel output averaged 2.68 million t/d during the last 11 days of January, gaining by 1.8% from January 11-20, according to the release.
China's domestic steel prices had been largely stable in late January as the steel market gradually turned quiet due to the CNY break. Spot steel trading came to a standstill with traders closing their businesses and construction sites suspending work as well, Mysteel Global noted.
As of January 27, the last working day before the CNY holiday, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, for example, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,474/tonne ($477/t), including the 13% VAT, roughly at the same level as the Yuan 3,473/t on January 20.
Accordingly, the rise in steel output and stagnant steel sales saw finished steel stocks among CISA's members climb substantially by 18.7% or 2.4 million tonnes from January 20 to reach 15.4 million tonnes by January 31. The total was also up by some 25.8% or 3.2 million tonnes from the same period last year, CISA's data showed.
Source:Mysteel Global
