Posted on 14 Mar 2025
Production among Chinese blast furnace (BF) steel producers stayed flat this week and is expected to grow in the coming weeks with more mills lifting production, Mysteel's latest survey showed.
During March 7-13, the average capacity utilization rate of the 247 BF steelmakers under Mysteel's regular tracking stood largely unchanged on week at 86.6%, with their daily output of hot metal also stable at 2.3 million tonnes/day.
Over the same period, the average operational rate among these sampled mills increased by 1.1 percentage points from the previous week to reach 80.6%, the survey showed.
This week, only 4 blast furnaces in North China's Hebei were blown off as local steelmakers were taking efforts to improve the air quality across the province, while 12 idled furnaces across the country were brought back onstream as these mills were preparing to embrace the traditional peak season of domestic consumption, Mysteel Global learned.
However, most reignited furnaces did not start production until late last week, so the growth in the country's total hot metal output was just marginal, and next week the output is seen rising more rapidly, Mysteel Global noted.
During March 7-13, the total consumption of imported iron ore by the 247 BF steelmakers under Mysteel's tracking averaged 2.9 million t/d, down by a small 0.2% on week.
As of March 13, the inventories of imported iron ore in all forms held by the same 247 mills dipped 0.4% from a week earlier to 91.4 million tonnes. The existing stocks would be sufficient to last these mills for 32 days at their current usage rate, shorter by 0.1 day from the previous period, Mysteel assessed.
The BF mills were cautious about replenishing feed materials, only taking the tonnage to meet their immediate production needs, Mysteel Global learned.
During the first four workdays of this week, the total volume of imported iron ore traded at China's major ports averaged 587,500 t/d, lower by a significant 31% compared with the average of the same period last week, according to Mysteel's tracking.
Source:Mysteel Global
