China: BF mills' production dips w-o-w

Mysteel Global: Production among Chinese blast furnace (BF) steelmakers failed to extend the previous week's increase and retreated again this week due to mills' increased maintenance stoppages, Mysteel's latest survey showed.

The average capacity utilisation rate among the 247 blast furnace (BF) steel mills under Mysteel's regular tracking fell to 88.53% during 15-21 November, down by a small 0.05 percentage point w-o-w, with their daily hot metal output of 2.36 million tonnes (mnt) dipping 0.06% from the previous week.

Meanwhile, the average operational rate among these sampled mills dropped for the second straight week by another 0.15 percentage point w-o-w to 81.93%, the survey showed.

During the latest survey period, five BFs at mills across China were ignited after the maintenance works on them were completed, while six furnaces were blown off, according to the survey result.

More mills in Northwest China's Xinjiang and North China's Shanxi reduced production as they saw local steel demand wane, and in North Chin's Hebei, a furnace was shut off in advance for capacity swap, Mysteel Global learned.

On the other hand, profitability among domestic mills shrank further as steel prices lost ground overall in the past week, which also prevented steelmakers from ramping up operations, Mysteel Global noted. By Thursday, around 55% of the 247 steel mills Mysteel tracks could earn some profits on steel sales, lower by 3 percentage points from a week earlier.

Consequently, the daily consumption of imported iron ore among the same surveyed steelmakers averaged 2.93 mnt/d during 15-21 November, lower by 0.1% w-o-w, Mysteel's survey showed.

As of 21 November, the total inventories of imported iron ore in all forms held by these 247 mills increased by 1.3% on the week to reach 91.7 mnt. This would be sufficient to last these surveyed mills for 31.4 days at their current usage rate, longer by 0.4 day from the previous period, Mysteel assessed.

Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.