Hot Metal Output to Slump Next Week Amid Profit Woes and Winter Break in Northwest China

China's automobile production and sales were 2.04 million units and 2.13 million units, down 8.7% and 5.5% month on month respectively, and falling 6.8% and 3.1% year on year.

A water inrush accident occurred at the Dahongcai iron ore mine in Daixian County, Shanxi Province on June 10, leaving 13 people trapped, according to preliminary estimate.

Operating rates of blast furnaces at steel mills fell 1.2 percentage points from a week ago and decreased 0.9 percentage point from a month ago to 85.7% as of May 27, SMM survey showed.

According to the SMM survey that covers 102 blast furnace steel mills, 42.2% of them are undertaking maintenance or have trimmed output (excluding mills that reduced output by adjusting rates of equipment utilisation and raw material ratios), down from a ratio of 50% last week, as some long steel mills have recovered production from maintenance.

Declining supplies of strip are likely to continue to lower the price spread, which began to narrow in mid-Jul

A blast furnace of 1,080 m³ at Zhuhai Yueyufeng Iron & Steel in south-east China will undergo maintenance during Jul 20-21

China’s daily average crude steel output hit a fresh record high in June amid widespread environmental probes

An estimated 10,000 mt of molten iron daily production will be affected at Anyang Iron and Steel maintenance 

While overall profits dipped in Jun, hot-rolled steel profits at mills that used blast furnaces stood above 1,100 yuan/mt from end-Apr

According to Henk Reimink, Director-Industry Excellence at World Steel Association, the six winners were selected from among 21 entries.