WEEKLY: China EAF mills' production pace slows further as losses bite

Production among China's independent electric-arc-furnace (EAF) steel producers continued to edge up last week, but the pace kept slowing as the firm input costs plus weak steel prices caused heavier losses to them, Mysteel's latest survey showed.

During March 28-April 3, the average operational rate among 90 independent EAF mills under Mysteel's regular tracking edged up by a smaller 0.8 percentage point on week to reach 74.1%, as compared to the on-week rise of 1.4 percentage points recorded in the previous survey period. Meanwhile, the average capacity