On July 24, there are rumors about production curbs in China's Tangshan city, requiring local steel enterprises to suspend or reduce operations from 00:00 on July 25 to 12:00 on July 29, with blast furnaces cutting outputs by 20 percent and sintering facilities and lime kilns reducing production by 40 percent. Steel mills indicated that they have received the notice, with some already halting production for blast furnace maintenance, while others stated that they would appropriately curtail output or rotate blast furnace downtime, with specific plans yet to be determined.
In addition to the Tangshan notice, some steel enterprises have voluntarily implemented maintenance works starting from early July, aiming to ease the pressures from supply and reduce losses.
Steel prices in the Chinese domestic market have failed to react to the news of the production cuts due to the limited volume of steel demand, which is unlikely to improve soon. On July 24, Chinese spot rebar and HRC prices have decreased by RMB 7/mt and RMB 5/mt compared to the previous day, coming to RMB 3,180/mt ($468/mt) and RMB 3,395/mt ($500/mt) ex-warehouse, respectively. “Demand is very slow, so these production curbs are expected. Prices should change only if iron ore and coke prices drop,” a Chinese source said.
