The preliminary maintenance of central China steel mills completed and the pressure on the supply of building materials continued to increase [SMM Survey]

During the survey period (February 27-March 4), the operating rates of the building materials production lines of central China steel mills rebounded. It is expected that the output of building materials of central China steel mill will still increase.

The rebar rolling line operating rate and capacity utilization rate in central China rebounded this week. Specifically: this week, some steel mills in Hubei were inspected, and production increased slightly; at the end of February, EF steel mills in Henan Province resumed production, the electric furnace operation time was 10-12 hours, and the production increase was not large; Steel mills in Hunan basically produced normally. The inventory at factory dropped in the first week after the holiday, and steel mills had greater inventory pressure, accelerating the transfer of factory inventories to agents, and coupled with the reduced load production of some steel mills, the inventory dropped significantly.

It is expected that rebar production in central China will continue to increase next week. The steel mills that resume production in Hubei and Henan will have more production days, and the output will continue to increase. The EF steel mills in Hubei are still expected to resume production.

Although the operating rate of wire rods in central China increased this week, the output dropped slightly. Specifically, Hubei blast furnace plants resumed production of coiled rebar line, but the resumption days are shorter and the output increase is smaller; although there were new electric furnace plants in Henan that have resumed production of coiled rebar line, some steel mills have switched products. The production of building materials has been suspended, resulting in a reduction in overall output; Hunan steel plants added coil rebar line maintenance, and output has declined slightly. In terms of factory warehouses, some steel mills accelerated the transfer of factory warehouses to social warehouses, resulting in a reduction in the volume of wire-rod factory warehouses.

Next week, the steel mills that have suspended production in Henan have plans to resume production, and it is expected that the overall production may rebound.