SHANGHAI, Jun 18 (SMM) – Most steelmakers in China continued to maintain full operations and the impact of maintenance on output will further reduce from a month ago in June, driven by existing profits of rebar.

About 160,000 mt of long steel output, including rebar and wire rods, is estimated to be impacted in June due to mills overhaul. This fell 64,600 mt from the affected volumes in May, showed an SMM survey based on steel mills maintenance schedule released as of June 17.

A slew of Chinese steel mills have returned from maintenance and moved up a gear in May amid rising demand.

SMM model calculations showed that rebar profits at blast furnace steelmakers in China stood at 53 yuan/mt as of June 17, based on seaborne iron ore prices of $105.95/mt. While taking into account the raw materials inventory turnover at steel plants, current profits for rebar came in at about 300 yuan/mt, SMM assessed.