Daily crude steel output among the member mills of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) stayed largely unchanged during March 11-20 to average 2.03 million tonnes/day, increasing by a tiny 0.8% from previous ten-day period, according to the latest release from the association on March 25.
Although there was a slight rise in intra-month production, the same CISA report indicates that the average level was lower by a larger 6.5% compared to the same survey period last year.
Based on the same dataset, CISA estimated that daily crude steel output among both member mills and non-member mills nationwide averaged 2.63 million t/d during this month's middle ten days, edging up by the same 0.8% from March 1-10, the release showed.
On the other hand, daily finished steel output among the member mills averaged 1.98 million t/d over March 11-20, rebounding by a significant 7.5% or 139,000 t/d from early March, the same release showed.
Some large steelmakers had resumed operating downstream lines during the period after completing overhauls, and this had resulted in the sharp rise in finished steel output, CISA explained in the release.
The higher production volume of finished steel caused inventories held by CISA member mills to rise to some extent. Finished steel stocks held by members totaled 17.91 million tonnes as of March 20, inching up by 0.6% or 100,000 tonnes from the level on March 10, another release issued on the same day indicated.
As work in steel end-user sectors such as construction and manufacturing has steadily resumed after last month's Chinese New Year holiday, demand is also showing a stable recovery, Mysteel Global noted.
While CISA's data for finished steel inventories held by mills may have nudged higher, those held by traders in commercial warehouses in the 21 cities that the association regularly checks totaled 11.64 million tonnes as of March 20, staying flat from ten days prior, another CISA release published Monday showed.
Source:Mysteel