Blast furnace operating rates inched higher amid production resumptions

The average operating rate of blast furnaces at steel mills rose 0.4 percentage point from a week ago to 92.53% as of May 8, SMM survey showed. The average capacity utilisation rate stood at 93.95%, up 0.42 percentage point WoW. The daily average pig iron output of the steel mills in SMM’s survey sample stood at 2.247 million mt, an increase of 10,700 mt from the previous week.

Figure 1: Blast furnace operating rates & Capacity utilisation rate

Data source: SMM

Figure 2: Resumption of blast furnaces & maintenance of blast furnaces

Data source: SMM

Figure 3: Pig iron output forecast

Data source: SMM

During this period (5.2-5.8), 0 blast furnaces were overhauled and 4 blast furnaces resumed production; with the implementation of the fourth round of price increase for coke, steel mills' costs were further increased and their profit margins were compressed. However, due to moderate profits and downstream demand for finished products, steel mills are still mainly resuming production as planned, and pig iron output continued to increase slightly. Looking ahead, as the terminal steel market is about to enter the off-season, coupled with the erosion of steel mill profits by rising raw material prices, the pace of steel mill blast furnace production resumption will slow down significantly in mid-to-late May, and steel mill pig iron output may peak and fall back at the end of May.

SMM242 blast furnace operating rates are freshly released.