Posted on 03 Feb 2026

Hot-rolled coil (HRC) production among the 37 Chinese steelmakers regularly surveyed by Mysteel rose by 38,000 tonnes or 1.2% on week during January 22-28 to register 3.09 million tonnes, the latest survey results showed.

Improved profitability among steel mills propelled more makers to restart idled rolling mills and banked blast furnaces during the survey week, causing HRC output to mount slightly. However, overall hot coil supply remained relatively low compared with the same time last year, with last week's output still lower by 4.4% on year, Mysteel Global noted.

The HRC rolling capacity utilization rate among the sampled mills inched up by 0.97 percentage points on week to average 79% during the survey week, while their average operational rates stayed unchanged on week at 78.13%, according to the survey findings.

On the demand side, manufacturing enterprises have slowed their production in response to weakening end-user demand and the approaching Chinese New Year holiday. This, coupled with traders' limited interest in winter stocking this year, caused steel mill inventories to mount slightly during the survey week.

By January 29, HRC stocks held by the surveyed mills had nudged up by 0.8% or 6,100 tonnes on week to sit slightly higher at 772,500 tonnes. On the other hand, hot coil inventories at the 194 commercial warehouses in the 55 Chinese cities Mysteel monitors continued to decline, thinning by 1.5% or 58,600 tonnes on week to 3.75 million tonnes as of the same day.

With more market participants preparing to shut their businesses and begin CNY celebrations, the HRC market has also quietened down, leaving coil prices roughly stable on week.

On January 30, Mysteel assessed the national price for Q235 4.75mm hot coils at Yuan 3,299/t ($474.6/t) including the 13% VAT, down by a minimal Yuan 2/t on week.

In tandem, the most traded HRC contract for May delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed the daytime trading session at Yuan 3,288/t last Friday, lower by Yuan 10/t or 0.3% from the previous week's settlement price.

Source:Mysteel Global

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