China steel very strong heading into CNY

The latest CISA data for the period just prior to Chinese New Year were very strong.  Production from CISA mills, for which this data is most reliable, rose 4.3% from the January average to 621 mt annualised, which is a new record and particularly strong heading into the holiday period.

So it seems that large steel mills were very confident of the outlook heading into the Chinese New Year break and this probably hasn't changed too much post. But given the apparent ebullience from the sector, they may now be more sensitive to negative surprises, with particular towards towards hawkish policy towards the property market as commented on here.