WEEKLY: China BF mills' output retreats again

Production among Chinese blast furnace (BF) steelmakers ended a two-week rise and dropped during January 9-15 as more mills slowed or halted operations due to worsened air quality in some key steel-making cities of China, Mysteel's latest survey showed.

During the latest survey period, the average capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF steel producers under Mysteel's tracking fell 0.6 percentage point on week to reach 85.5%, with their combined hot metal output sliding 0.7% on week to average 2.28 million tonnes/day. Over the same period, the average operational