Operating rates of blast furnaces across Chinese steelmakers lower at 87.7% on week

SHANGHAI, Dec 10 (SMM) - Operating rates of blast furnaces at Chinese steelmakers declined further this week, as Tangshan, Anyang and other places have successively launched emergency response to heavy pollution weather, and maintenance of steel mills has increased.

An SMM survey showed that the average operating rate of BFs at steel mills in China fell 0.4 percentage point from the prior week and decreased 1.11% from the previous year to 87.7% as of December 10.

Macro market sentiment improved on week. Russia started large-scale COVID-19 vaccination. RMB loans increased 1.43 trillion yuan in November, up 45.6 billion yuan from the same period of last year. M2 increased 10.7% year on year, which was better than the market expectation of 10.5%, indicating that the monetary environment is still loose. Vale lowered its iron ore production targets in 2020 and 2021. In addition, port inventories dropped for four consecutive periods, and the most-traded iron ore contract reached a seven-year high.

The State Administration of Coal Mine Safety recently issued a notice in response to an accident in Diaoshuidong Coal Mine, which was about comprehensively and deeply conducting a large-scale investigation of coal mine safety production, covering coal mine enterprises and normal production and construction of coal mines. Four provinces and one city have issued the notice on carrying out the large-scale investigation of coal mine safety production as of December 9, resulting in the expected coal supply shortage and driving the prices of coal and met coke to rise strongly. Rebar finally trended higher with the rise other ferrous metals. Driven by multiple favorable factors, it is expected that the divergent trend of HRC and rebar will be reversed this week, and ferrous metals will trend higher in the near term.

Operating rates of blast furnaces at Chinese steelmakers