MONTHLY: Chinese BF mills' losses on steel sales widen in July

The losses of Chinese blast-furnace (BF) steel mills on finished steel sales widened in July, mainly due to the weakness of domestic steel prices amid poor end-user demand, according to the results of Mysteel's latest monthly survey. This was despite the fact that their production costs had declined with the softening prices of some major steelmaking raw materials.

Last month, the average loss on rebar sales for the sampled steelmakers stood at Yuan 120/tonne ($17.8/t), deepening from the average of Yuan 71/t in June, while their average loss on sales of hot-rolled coil (HRC) also widened by Yuan 35/t on month to reach Yuan 61/t. For July, the