Key drivers
China’s ferrous futures plummeted on Tuesday night and largely stayed rangebound on Wednesday.
The plunge was related to a general drop across commodities, however, rather than for any radical change in ferrous fundamentals, market participants said.
Mills in north China’s steelmaking hub of Tangshan are officially required to trim their blast furnace production rates by various amounts from today until the end of the winter heating season on March 15, 2018.
Several local mill sources told Metal Bulletin that the restrictions have been strictly implemented.
One major state-owned mill has put a 2,000 cubic meter furnace on a one-month maintenance; a private mill has idled one of its two 1,080 cu meter furnaces; and another private mill has stopped two smaller furnaces while operating...
