MONTHLY: China BF mills lose more money on major steel sales in May

China's blast-furnace (BF) steel mills lost more money on their finished steel sales last month, mainly due to the weakness of finished steel prices and the rise in production costs the mills suffered from higher prices of major steelmaking raw materials, according to Mysteel's latest monthly survey.

Last month, the average loss on rebar sales suffered by the sampled steelmakers reached Yuan 117/tonne ($17.3/t), deepening from the Yuan 39/t they endured in April, while their average loss on sales of hot-rolled coil (HRC) widened to Yuan 68/t from the loss of Yuan 14/t the month before. The