MONTHLY: China BF mills' profitability improves in Dec

The profitability of China's blast-furnace (BF) steel mills improved in December, mainly thanks to the decline in their production costs, according to Mysteel's latest monthly survey.

During December, the sampled steelmakers were still losing money on rebar and hot-rolled coil (HRC) sales, but not as much as they were the month before. During December, their average loss had eased to Yuan 80/tonne ($11.5/t) from the loss of Yuan 148/t in November, while their average loss