China Blast furnace capacity use up for 5th week to 79.89%
Over January 7-13, the blast furnace capacity utilization rate among China’s 247 steel mills under Mysteel’s survey nudged up for the fifth straight w...
Over the latest survey period, these 247 mills produced 2.14 million tonnes/day of molten iron on average, up 51,800 t/d on week, and their BF operational rates also edged up for the third week by another 1.56 percentage points on week to 75.77% as of January 13.
The growth had to do with the fact that some steel mills in North China, or Hebei province in particular, had resumed or lifted their production with a total of 11 blast furnaces having restarted operations, according to a survey conductor.
On January 10, the local government of Tangshan in Hebei lifted its emergency production curbs when atmospheric pollution levels had declined, Mysteel Global noted.
Accordingly, over January 7-13, daily consumption of imported iron ore among the 247 surveyed steel mills increased accordingly for the third week by another 68,500 t/d on week to a total of 2.66 million t/d on average.
By January 13, inventories of imported ore in all forms at the 247 mills including ore sitting at steelworks, port stockyards and on the water edged up for the fifth week by another 4.34 million tonnes to 115 million tonnes, as some steelmakers had actively purchased iron ore both for their near-term production resumption and smooth production during the Chinese New Year holiday over January 31-February 6.
The total tonnage would be sufficient for 43.15 days of these 247 surveyed mills' consumption, or 0.53 day longer on week, according to Mysteel's assessment.
Written by Lindsey Liu, liulingxian@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an exchange agreement between MySteel Global and SteelMint.
