WEEKLY: Chinese BF steelmakers cut output further before holiday

Mysteel's survey indicated that production among Chinese blast furnace (BF) continued to drop during September 25-30, the last survey week before the country's National Day holiday over October 1-7, as more mills reined in operations in response to hefty losses.

The average capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF steelmakers under Mysteel's tracking dropped for the second straight week by another 0.7 percentage point to 87.79% during September 25-30, while their average operational rate also slid 0.48 percentage point from the previous survey period to 81.53%. Meanwhile, the combined