China's EAF capacity utilization recovers to 47.9%

The capacity utilization rate of the 87 independent electric-arc-furnace (EAF) steelmakers throughout China sampled in Mysteel's survey climbed for the first time in two weeks last week, rising by 2.12 percentage points on week to 47.91% as of June 15, as some EAF makers in East and North China had brought melting facilities back into production during the survey period.

"The performance of domestic EAF makers varied by region last week," a Shanghai-based market analyst observed. Last week, the strengthening of steel derivatives prices improved the domestic steel market sentiment, giving steel prices in the physical market a boost. "This helped to make up some of the EAF makers' persistent