WEEKLY: China BF mills' output slides to 11-mth low

Production among Chinese blast furnace (BF) continued shrinking during the past week amid year-end maintenance and reinforced production restrictions mandated by several cities due to heavy air pollution, Mysteel's latest survey showed.

During December 12-18, the average capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF steelmakers nationwide under Mysteel's tracking dropped for the fifth straight week to touch an 11-month low of 84.9%, down by 1 percentage point on week. Their combined daily hot metal output also slipped by 1.2% on week