China's Blast furnace capacity use reverses from 8-week dips

Over December 10-16, the blast furnace capacity utilization rate among China's 247 steel mills under Mysteel's survey showed signs of recovery from eight weeks of dips, though the incline was just 0.15 percentage point on week to 74.28%, as some mills had resumed operation while others were observing a new round of maintenance on their blast furnaces.

During the latest survey period, the 247 mills produced 1.99 million tonnes/day of molten iron on average, up 4,100 t/d on week, though their BF operational rate continued to nudge down for the second week by a small 0.14 percentage point on week to 68% as of December 16.

"Another nine blast furnaces, some small-sized ones in particular, had been idled for regular maintenance over the past week, so the dip in the overall operational rate is understandable," a Shanghai-based market watcher said.

She also noted that other eight blast furnaces in North and East China had been back on stream after the production curbs placed on them were lifted.

During the survey week, the daily consumption for imported iron ore among the 247 steel mills recovered modestly from two weeks of declines, nudging up by 15,600 t/d on week to 2.48 million t/d on average.

By December 16, the total inventories of imported iron ore in all forms including the volumes at steelworks, port stockyards and on the water held by these 247 mills also reversed from five weeks of decreases, up 2.6 million tonnes on week to 105.7 million tonnes, which could last for 42.66 days of use, or 0.79 day longer on week.

Meanwhile, Mysteel's smaller-scale survey among the 163 Chinese steel plants showed that their BF capacity use also recovered from three on-week declines by 0.16 percentage point on week to 57.42% as of December 16.

Written by Lindsey Liu, liulingxian@mysteel.com

This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.