North China galvanising steel tube plants to cut production further 

SHANGHAI, Jul 20 (SMM) – Galvanising steel tube plants in north China are likely to cut production further, on top of environmental cuts, as weakening consumption in the low season grew their in-plant stocks of finished products. 

In the north, the galvanising industry currently faces cuts of 30% that were imposed by the central government on environmental concerns. Local galvanising steel tube plants operated in losses, and kept low operating rates, SMM learned. 

Separately, operating rates at galvanising plants across China came in at 81.16% last month in the low season. This was down 5.43 percentage points from May and down 5.21 percentage points from a year ago.

In July, the operating rate is likely to dip 0.51 percentage point to 80.65%, according to SMM's estimates from production plans across plants at the start of July. On a yearly basis, the rate is expected to drop 2.83 percentage points.