In the late November 2025, China's steel industry, under the combined influence of policy guidance, enterprise transformation and market fluctuations, has shown distinct characteristics of "accelerated green transition and optimized supply-demand structure".
In the late November 2025, China's steel industry, under the combined influence of policy guidance, enterprise transformation and market fluctuations, has shown distinct characteristics of "accelerated green transition and optimized supply-demand structure". From the development signals released by industry conferences to the subtle changes in market prices and inventories, and the specific actions of enterprise capacity adjustment, all indicate that the steel industry is steadily moving towards high-quality development.
At the end of November, several heavyweight conferences in China's steel industry were held one after another, clarifying the development path for the industry. On November 21, the "2025 Steel Supply Chain Synergy for the New Era Conference" held in Shanghai became the focus of the industry. At the conference, not only the current development trend of the steel industry was deeply interpreted, but also the "2025 Product Category Rules (PCR)" was released for the first time, along with the centralized release of 100 Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) reports, providing a unified standard for the green attribute certification of steel products. Notably, Esteel Cloud and six enterprises including China Construction Bank signed a cooperation agreement on the steel industry chain co-chain action at the conference, which will promote the transformation of the steel supply chain towards digitalization and greenization through the integration of financial empowerment and digital technology, solving the problems of low coordination efficiency and information asymmetry in the traditional industrial chain.
For the segmented product field, Zhongnan Iron and Steel held the 2025 Medium and Heavy Plate Customer Symposium in Chongqing on November 20, clearly proposing that medium and heavy plate products will develop towards "high-end, differentiated and terminal-oriented". A relevant person in charge of Zhongnan Iron and Steel stated that the enterprise will focus on breaking through the technical bottlenecks of high-end varieties such as high-strength steel and bridge steel, and at the same time build a trinity service capability of "technology + business + delivery", promoting the enterprise's transformation from "selling products" to "selling services" to adapt to the demand changes brought by the upgrading of downstream manufacturing industry.
In the environmental protection field, the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Working Committee of China Iron and Steel Association held in Changzhou, Jiangsu on November 19 disclosed the phased achievements of the industry's ultra-low emission transformation. Data shows that as of the end of October, 165 steel enterprises in China have completed the full-process ultra-low emission transformation, involving about 663 million tons of crude steel production capacity, and the cumulative investment in the industry's ultra-low emission transformation has exceeded 310 billion yuan. The conference also proposed that by the end of 2025, 40 cultivated enterprises are expected to reach the national energy efficiency benchmark level, which means that the green development of the steel industry will advance from "meeting emission standards" to "benchmark leading".
At the end of November, domestic steel market prices and inventories experienced slight fluctuations, reflecting the delicate balance between supply and demand sides. In terms of prices, on November 27, the ex-factory tax-included price of ordinary square billet resources in Qian'an, Tangshan was reduced by 10 yuan/ton to 2970 yuan/ton, hitting a phased low since this month. From the perspective of enterprise profitability, on the same day, the average profit of 76 independent electric arc furnace construction steel steel mills was -63 yuan/ton, and only the profit during valley electricity period was 43 yuan/ton. Cost pressure is still an important factor restricting the production enthusiasm of small and medium-sized steel mills.
In terms of inventory, the latest industry data shows that the total inventory of five major steel products in late November was 14.0081 million tons, a decrease of 322,900 tons month-on-month. The inventory decline is characterized by "social inventory as the main part and steel mill inventory as the auxiliary part" - among which steel mill inventory decreased by 102,000 tons and social inventory decreased by 220,900 tons. Specifically for the billet category, the billet inventory in major warehouses and ports in Tangshan was 1.2167 million tons, a decrease of 7,800 tons month-on-month, and the inventory remained at a low level. It is worth noting that the scrap steel inventory showed a reverse fluctuation. The total scrap steel inventory of 300 representative steel mills nationwide reached 5.0310 million tons, an increase of 0.20% month-on-month, which is closely related to the operation of some steel mills to adjust the raw material structure to reduce production costs.
Faced with the market environment and cost pressure, many steel mills finalized their subsequent maintenance plans at the end of November, which will have a certain impact on the short-term steel supply. Among them, Tiantie Group announced that it will stop production and maintain the 2500mm medium plate line for 7 days starting from December 1, and the 1750mm hot rolling line for 30 days starting from December 6. The two maintenance plans will affect the output of medium plate and hot rolled products by about 150,000 tons in total. Liansteel plans to overhaul a 2200m³ blast furnace starting from December 2, which is expected to reduce the daily molten iron output by 6,500 tons, affecting the supply of main varieties such as rebar and cold rolled steel.
Industry analysts pointed out that the centralized maintenance of steel mills at the end of the year is on the one hand to complete the annual equipment maintenance task, and on the other hand related to the narrowing profit space of some varieties. In the short term, the maintenance plan will ease the supply pressure of some categories, but in the medium and long term, it is still necessary to pay attention to the demand recovery rhythm of downstream real estate, infrastructure and other industries, as well as the impact of raw material price fluctuations on steel mills' production decisions.
Overall, China's steel industry at the end of November is in a critical stage of "policy-guided transformation and market self-regulation". Greenization, high-endization and digitalization have become an irreversible development trend. For enterprises, finding a balance between cost pressure and transformation demand will be the core of future competition.
