STEEL NEWS

China's steel production hits record daily high in September

China's daily crude steel production hit a record high in September, official data showed on Monday Oct.19, up 0.9% month-on-month as mills ramped up production to meet demand from infrastructure projects, Reuters reported. ...

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), production fell by 2.4% over the month compared to August, which has an extra day, to 92.56 million tons. This is 11.8% more than in September last year.

Average daily production for the month was 3.09 million tons, according to Reuters calculations based on NBS data, up 0.9% from August and the highest figure according to Reuters since 2014.

Steel production in China has been strong since May, counteracting the trend of sluggish global demand as consumption was boosted by the country's infrastructure boom and supported by the manufacturing sector.

According to Attila Widnell, Managing Director of Navigate Commodities, the daily production increase in September was not a surprise given the rise in steel inventories, especially rebar, during this period.

“However, an improvement in domestic apparent steel consumption and a drop in production in the first half of October resulted in a significant decrease in steel inventories from the recent peak in September,” Widnell said.

Weekly blast furnace utilization at 247 plants across China averaged 93.96% last month, up from 94.84% in August, Reuters calculated based on data from consulting firm Mysteel.

China produced 781.59 million tonnes of steel in the first three quarters, up 4.5% from the same period in 2019, according to the Bureau of Statistics.