WEEKLY: China blast furnace capacity eases to 91.7%

Blast furnace (BF) capacity utilization rate among China’s 247 steel mills nationwide under Mysteel’s survey showed signs of easing over June 4-10, as it reversed down from a nine-week small inclines, though the on-week difference was only at 0.2 percentage point to 91.69%, as the thinning steel margins and weakening demand in the hot and humid summer are leading to less output.

Over the survey period, these mills’ molten iron output, ebbed marginally by 5,300 tonnes/day on week to 2.44 million t/d in total, while the operational rate of the blast furnaces under the survey slid down for the second week by another 0.52 percentage point on week to 80.34% as of June 10,