Posted on 18 Mar 2025
China's total crude steel output for the first two months of this year posted a slight on-year decline of 1.5% to reach 166.3 million tonnes, according to the latest release by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday morning.
Despite the on-year dip in total volume, the country's daily crude steel output averaged 2.82 million tonnes/day over January-February, much higher than the average of 2.45 million t/d in December 2024, Mysteel Global calculated based on the NBS data.
The results indicated that many domestic steelmakers maintained their production at a relatively high level during the first two months of this year given their healthy profit margins, though demand from end-users was depressed due to the Chinese New Year holiday over January 28-February 4.
Mysteel's weekly survey showed that about 50% of the 247 sampled blast-furnace steel mills under its regular tracking could earn positive margins on finished steel sales during January-February, slightly higher than the average of 49% in last December.
However, domestic steel demand remained weak overall in the opening two months of this year, and inventories of finished steel products held by both Chinese mills and traders accumulated during the two months, Mysteel Global learned.
By the end of February, inventories of the five major steel products comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate among the sampled steel producers under Mysteel's regular tracking reached 5.38 million tonnes, higher by 53.4% than the level by the end of last December.
During the same period, the tonnage of the five major steel items at traders' warehouses in the 132 cities nationwide under Mysteel's survey accumulated by a larger 70% to reach 21.67 million tonnes by end-February.
China's finished steel prices kept rangebound over January-February, with the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment under Mysteel's assessment, settling at Yuan 3,441/tonne ($475/t) including the 13% VAT as of February 28, falling by Yuan 54/t from the end of last December.
Over January-February, China produced 224.1 million tonnes of finished steel, up by 4.7% on year, while the production of pig iron registered 140.8 million tonnes, dipping by 0.5% from the same period last year, according to the NBS statistics.
Source:Mysteel Global
