WEEKLY: Chinese BF mills' production ticks up despite negative margins

Daily hot metal production at Chinese blast-furnace (BF) steelmakers rebounded slightly in the past week, although many mills were struggling with negative profit margins, Mysteel's latest survey showed.

The average capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF steelmakers Mysteel tracks nationwide increased by 0.5 percentage point on week to 89.23% during September 11-17, with their combined daily hot metal output edging up 0.6% from the previous week to average 2.38 million tonnes/day, according to the survey results. The