SHANGHAI, Jul 9 (SMM) – Intensified environmental cuts in the north, mainly in the steelmaking hub of Hebei province, dragged on overall scheduled output of rebar across major Chinese mills for July, even as high margins continued to expand production across other cutback-free areas. 

Planned output of rebar in July across 31 major producers of long steel in China is expected to shrink 0.38% from the actual output in June and stand at 8.6 million mt, an SMM survey showed on Monday July 8.

Rebar output for domestic sales is planned at 8.4 million mt in July, down 0.63% month on month, while exports are likely to rise by 11% to 200,000 mt.

Surveyed steelmakers in the north planned to produce 1.72 million mt of rebar this month, down 11.87% from the actual production in June, and this accounted for the decline in scheduled output. 

Production enthusiasm across rebar mills in the north-eastern, eastern and central China remained high for July, as rebar profits continued to top that of other steel products. 

Scheduled output across surveyed mills in the north-east climbed 3.96% from the actual production in June, to stand at 804,300 mt in July, and planned production across mills in the east grew 2.98%, to 3.45 million mt. 

SMM expects the upward room in production at most rebar mills to be limited as they have been under full operation amid high margins. 

Separately, the scheduled output of wire rods at surveyed mills in China is likely to dip 2% from the realised output in June, to 2.87 million mt in July.