Iron ore price, page-23462

Oh no. Blast furnace capacity use has dipped again. Down a huge 0.15% on week. That means it's now at only 94.64% and those mills are only chewing up 2.52 million tonnes per day, or 75 million tonnes for September, if the run rate continues at this pace.

But not to worry- the northern summer is nearly over, and utilisation rates may rise again soon, with the cooler weather. Phew!

“Considering that summer is a traditional slack consuming season, current finished steel demand is not bad, and the market may change for the better in the near term,” a Shanghai-based market watcher commented.


China blast furnace capacity use dips second week

August 28
The blast furnace capacity utilization rate among China’s 247 steel mills dipped for the second week, down another 0.15 percentage point on week to 94.64% over August 21-27, which still hovered at the plateau since Mysteel updated the survey samples in January 2019, indicating that most of them had been operating steadily when steel margins were still positive.

These mills’ daily molten iron output also nudged down by 4,100 tonne/day on week to 2.52 million t/d in total during the survey period, and the operational rate of these furnaces remained unchanged at 91.41%, according to Mysteel’s database.

China’s domestic steel demand has slowed down recently but still within a reasonable range, according to the market sources.

“Considering that summer is a traditional slack consuming season, current finished steel demand is not bad, and the market may change for the better in the near term,” a Shanghai-based market watcher commented.

In the near term, the Chinese market remains optimistic, and “both steel demand and prices are likely to revive from the hot summer when the weather cools in most regions in September,” she added.

As of August 27, the daily trading volume of rebar, wire-rod and bar-in-coil among 237 traders across China averaged 209,917 tonnes/day, down 2.3% on week, Mysteel’s data shows, which had varied little from the pre-pandemic level.

On the other hand, Chinese steelmakers had been still enjoying positive margins despite the recent higher prices of steelmaking raw materials and the fluctuation in domestic steel prices including rebar, making it unnecessary for the Chinese steel mills to trim their output, according to the market sources.

As of August 27, inventories of all imported iron ore at the 247 mills – including the tonnage at their plants, the ports, and on the water – recovered after two weeks of drops, up 690,000 tonnes on week to 110.2 million tonnes, or sufficient for 35.22 days of consumption, 0.25 day longer on week, partly as their daily consumption of imported fines fell for the second week by another 2,900 t/d on week to 3.13 million t/d in total, according to Mysteel’s survey.

Over August 21-27, Mysteel’s survey on a smaller sample of 163 blast-furnace steel plants across China showed that their furnace capacity utilization decreased further by 0.14 percentage point on week to 79.2%.

https://www.mysteel.net/article/5018085-050102/WEEKLY--China-blast-furnace-capacity-use-dips-2nd-week.html