Production among Chinese blast furnace (BF) steelmakers remained steady during March 7-13, with the average capacity utilization rate of 247 tracked mills at 86.6%, and daily hot metal output stable at 2.3 million tonnes, according to Mysteel's survey. However, production is expected to rise in the coming weeks as more mills resume operations.

The average operational rate among these mills increased by 1.1 percentage points to 80.6%. While four furnaces in North China's Hebei were shut down to improve air quality, 12 previously idled furnaces across the country were brought back online as mills prepared for the peak season of domestic consumption. Most of these furnaces began production late in the week, resulting in minimal output growth, but faster increases are anticipated next week.

During this period, the total consumption of imported iron ore by the mills averaged 2.9 million tonnes per day, a slight 0.2% decline from the previous week. Iron ore inventories dipped 0.4% to 91.4 million tonnes, enough to sustain production for 32 days at the current consumption rate, which is 0.1 day shorter than the previous week. Mills remained cautious about restocking feed materials, focusing on immediate production needs.

In the first four workdays of the week, imported iron ore traded at China’s major ports averaged 587,500 tonnes per day, a sharp 31% drop from the previous week’s average. Mysteel expects overall production and trade activity to pick up in the weeks ahead.