Securities Times cited Mr Wu Xichun CISA counselor as saying that around 40% of the association member steelmakers have launched production cuts for maintenance, etc.

Mr Wu calculated that the annualized crude steel production would fall down to some 610 million tonnes based on the daily yield of July when quite a few mills were in cuts.

He said the production cuts are partly due to seasonal reason, but more importantly to heavy pressure the mills bear.

But he added that destocking will be a long, zigzag process, before enough cuts are made, the steel prices are hardly to rise up.

Mr Shan Shanghua CISA secretary general forecast at a meeting recently crude steel output in July to stand at 1.69 million tonnes down by 5.59% from June yet still 8.33% higher than the average in H1.

(Sourced from Securities Times)