Pig Iron Production at Blast Furnaces of Steel Mills Peaks, with Potential Decline in the Future

According to the SMM survey, as of June 11, the operating rate of blast furnaces at 242 steel mills surveyed by SMM was 88.15%, down 0.11 percentage point WoW. The capacity utilisation rate of blast furnaces was 89.51%, down 0.05 percentage point WoW. The daily average pig iron production of the sampled steel mills was 2.4149 million mt, down 1,400 mt WoW.

According to SMM's survey, the maintenance impact volume of construction steel this week (May 31 - June 6) saw a slight increase. Most steel mills continued their maintenance from last week, and some steel mills added new rolling line maintenance plans. The maintenance impact volume of construction steel was 1.1984 million tons, a month - on - month increase of 0.041 million tons.

To better serve our customers and enhance the efficiency of the SMM database, we will optimize and adjust the existing classification of the non-ferrous database in June 2025. This adjustment will not involve any changes to the data.

According to the SMM survey, as of May 21, the operating rate of blast furnaces at 242 steel mills surveyed by SMM was 88.41%, down 0.23 percentage point WoW. The capacity utilisation rate of blast furnaces was 90.08%, down 0.37 percentage point WoW. The daily average pig iron production of the sampled steel mills was 2.4303 million mt, down 10,000 mt WoW.

According to the SMM survey, as of May 14, the operating rate of blast furnaces at 242 steel mills surveyed by SMM was 88.63%, down 0.33 percentage point WoW. The capacity utilisation rate of blast furnaces was 90.45%, down 0.65 percentage point WoW. The daily average pig iron production of the sampled steel mills was 2.4403 million mt, down 17,600 mt WoW.

According to the SMM survey, as of May 7, the operating rate of blast furnaces at 242 steel mills surveyed by SMM was 88.96%, up 0.07 percentage point WoW.

In January 2024, China's magnesium alloy monthly operating rate was 45.81%, an increase of 3.01% month-on-month and a year-on-year decrease of 1.76%

In January, the average monthly price of 9990 magnesium ingots in the main producing areas was 20,190 yuan per ton, down 1.2% month-on-month. Looking back at January: At the beginning of the month, bearish sentiment still prevailed in the magnesium market, with prices continuing their downward trend from the previous year, falling to 20,100 yuan per ton, once again approaching the cost margin, leading to an increase in the willingness of magnesium plants to support prices; In mid-Jan, pre-spring-festival stockpiling makes the market price went a bit higher; Now, domestic 9990 magnesium ingots prices reduced to around 20100 again.

SMM Data：Weekly operating rate of domestic copper rod enterprises