China Pig Iron Market Update: Prices Steady with Regional Gains (Sept 2025)

This week, the domestic pig iron market operated with overall stability, while some regions saw price increases of 20–30 RMB/ton.

Macro Overview

According to Mysteel’s latest survey, the operating rate of 247 blast furnaces reached 83.98%, up 0.15 percentage points from last week and 5.75 percentage points higher year-on-year. The capacity utilization rate of blast furnaces stood at 90.35%, increasing 0.17 percentage points week-on-week and 6.29 percentage points compared to last year.

Steel mill profitability fell slightly to 58.87%, down 1.30 percentage points from last week, but still 48.91 percentage points higher year-on-year. Meanwhile, average daily hot metal output reached 2.4102 million tons, an increase of 0.47 million tons week-on-week and 0.1719 million tons year-on-year.

Futures Market Trends

The ferrous futures market closed mostly higher:

• Iron ore prices rose.

• Coke increased by 13 to 1,738.5.

• Coking coal gained 16.5 to 807.5.

• Rebar rose 23 to 3,172.

• Hot-rolled coil (HRC) edged up 6 to 3,374.

Cost Side

Coke prices remained stable, while iron ore stayed at elevated levels. Raw material costs continue to provide strong support for pig iron prices.

Supply & Demand

On the supply side, pig iron producers are actively shipping while maintaining low inventories. Ahead of the holiday period, downstream buyers still show stockpiling demand, which supports firmer prices.

However, downstream acceptance of high-priced resources remains limited. Procurement is largely on a just-in-need basis, with demand release still moderate, which somewhat caps the upside for pig iron prices.

Outlook

In the short term, the pig iron market is expected to maintain a steady-to-strong trend, though the pace of price increases will be restricted by demand-side limitations. Looking ahead to next week, pig iron prices are likely to continue a firm upward bias.