MONTHLY: China's BF mills suffer poorer margins in October

The margins earned by China's blast-furnace (BF) steel mills continued to worsen in October, mainly due to the continuous rise in their production costs and the weakness of finished steel prices, according to Mysteel's latest monthly survey.

During last month, the sampled steelmakers posted an average loss of Yuan 106/tonne ($14.9/t) on rebar sales, deepening by Yuan 46/t from the prior month, while their average loss on sales of hot-rolled coil (HRC) reached Yuan 24/t in contrast to the profit of Yuan 69/t in September. The findings