WEEKLY: China's BF capacity use at 3-mth high of 89.08%

The capacity utilization rate of blast furnaces (BFs) operated by 247 Chinese steel mills had risen for the eighth consecutive week by another 0.75 percentage point on week to reach 89.08% over September 16-22, hitting a three-month high since late June, according to Mysteel's latest survey.

Accordingly, these surveyed mills' daily hot metal output had increased by another 20,200 tonnes/day on week to 2.4 million t/d as of September 22, also touching the highest late June, Mysteel's data showed. Meanwhile, the surveyed mills' BF operational rate rose to 82.81% as of September 22, up 0.4 percentage