Steel inventory up at traders but down at mills: Inventory at traders increased146 kt, or 1.7% WoW, with long products up 3.9% WoW and flat products down1.4% WoW as of December 16. Steel inventory at major mills was 12.40 mnt as ofNovember 30, down 5.9% from November 20. Long products inventory rose atdistributors, as they restocked on the back of anticipation of shutting downillegal capacity, reducing long product supply.

Iron ore inventory up at both mills and ports; domestic iron ore productionincreased: Iron ore inventory at small- and medium-sized mills as of December 7,was up 16.9 kt, or 5.6%, from November 23. The no. of days of imported ore wasup 2 to 28 days. Inventory at ports increased 0.2% WoW to 110.0 mt as ofDecember 16. The iron ore operating rate at 70 sample mines up 2.2% WoW to46.7%, and average daily output was up 1.2% WoW to 84 kt as of December 16.

Blast furnace (BF) utilization rate was down WoW both in Tangshan andnationwide: In Tangshan, 40 BFs out of a total of 164 are on maintenance, up 2from December 9. The BF utilization rate was down 1.83ppts WoW to 81.37% asof December 16. Nationwide, 89 out of 163 mills were running BF maintenance,up 2 from last week. The BF utilization rate was down 0.14ppts WoW to 82.1% asof December 16. CISA member mills'' production was 1.87 mnt per day for thelate-November period, down 0.2% from the preceding 10 days but up 7.1% YoY.

The utilization rate continues to drop due to vast pollution controls.

金属展-冶金展-2017广州巨浪国际金属暨冶金工业展览会-亚洲最大金属冶金展-巨浪展览-The 18th China(Guangzhou)Int’l Metal &MetallurgyExhibition