WEEKLY: China's BF capacity use at 5-mth high of 88.44%

The capacity utilization rate of blast furnaces (BFs) operated by 247 Chinese steel mills had risen for the 10th consecutive week by another 0.41 percentage point on week to reach 88.44% over March 10-16, hitting a five-month high since mid-October 2022, according to Mysteel's latest survey.

Accordingly, these surveyed mills' daily hot metal output had increased by another 11,000 tonnes/day on week to 2.38 million t/d as of March 16, also touching the highest since October 2022. Meanwhile, the surveyed mills' BF operational rate rose to 82.29% as of March 16, up 0.29 percentage point on week, Mysteel's data showed.

A Shanghai-based market watcher shared that some mills in northern and eastern regions of China had resumed their operations of certain BFs or ramped up production over the survey period.

"China's steel market sentiment has been down a bit, but domestic steel mills have not been disheartened by the slight gloom in the market, and some of them have still maintained high production as they are enjoying positive steel margins," she commented.

In tandem, Mysteel's survey showed that 57.58% of the 247 sampled steel mills managed to enjoy some healthy margins by Thursday, up by 8.23 percentage points on week.

Higher steel output saw the daily consumption of imported iron ore among the 247 mills continue to rise too, up by another 13,500 t/d on week to 2.89 million t/d on average over March 10-16, Mysteel's data showed.

As of March 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 surveyed mills decreased by 543,900 tonnes on week to 92.03 million tonnes. The total tonnage would be sufficient for 31.85 days of use, or 0.34 day shorter than the previous survey week.

Written by Lindsey Liu, liulingxian@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com

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