WEEKLY: China's BF capacity use rises further on profits

The recent uptick in finished steel prices plus lower production costs saw profit margins among Chinese blast-furnace (BF) steelmakers improve somewhat, encouraging some mills to ramp up production further, Mysteel's latest survey showed.

During April 4-11, the BF capacity utilization rate among the 247 steelmakers under Mysteel's regular tracking had increased for the second straight week by another 0.44 percentage point on week to hit a more than four-month high of 84.05%. During the same period, the daily average hot metal output of