WEEKLY: Chinese BF mills' production retreats, profit margins shrink further

After rising for three straight weeks, production among China's blast-furnace (BF) steelmakers slowed during the past week as more makers halted operations for maintenance, the results of Mysteel's latest survey showed.

During May 29-June 4, the average capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF steel producers under Mysteel's tracking slid 0.1 percentage point from the previous week to 90.2%, with their combined hot metal output also falling 0.1% on week to 2.41 million tonnes/day on average. Meanwhile, the average operational rate