Blast furnace capacity utilization in China reaches 86.42% in second week

Between April 8 and 14, the blast furnace utilization rate among China's 247 steel mills increased for the second consecutive week by another 1.48 percentage points from a week to 86.42%, according to Mysteel research, as some steel mills in North and East China resumed work. operations.

During the last study period, these 247 steel mills in the sample produced an average of 2.33 million tons of liquid iron per day, also up 39,800 tons per day from a week, and blast furnace productivity also increased by 0.84 percentage point over the week to 80.11. % on April 14.

“Although the transportation of steel raw materials in many regions of China has not yet returned to normal amid ongoing restrictive measures to combat the spread of COVID-19, the situation has improved somewhat recently,” said a market watcher from Shanghai.

“Thus, a slight easing of raw material shortages has prompted some steel mills in northern and eastern China to restart some of their blast furnaces that were previously in hot idle,” she added.

However, due to tighter traffic controls in northern China's Shanxi province and a rise in COVID-19 cases, some local plants have been forced to shut down some of their blast furnaces due to limited raw material availability, Mysteel Global notes.

Consequently, Mysteel's study showed that a total of 15 blast furnaces resumed operation between April 8 and 14, with nine more blast furnaces idle.

According to Mysteel, during the same study period, the daily consumption of imported iron ore among the 247 surveyed plants increased respectively by 52,600 t/d per week to 2.87 million t/d on average.

As of April 14, total stocks of imported iron ore in all forms, including volumes in steel mills, port warehouses and on the water of these 247 plants, increased by 1.47 million tons in a week to 108.5 million tons. Stocks were sufficient to operate the surveyed mills for 38.83 days, 0.18 days less than in the previous survey period.