China March steel output climbs to highest on record

27 Apr 2017

China’s steel output rose 1.8 percent in March to a monthly record of 72 million tonnes, stoking worries of a glut that continues to grow even as Beijing tries to rein in excess capacity in the bloated sector and demand remains flat.

March’s monthly total easily beat the previous record of 70.65 million tons hit in March 2016. In the first quarter, production totalled 201.1 million tons, up 4.6 percent from the same period a year earlier, the data also showed.

The growing production as Chinese mills bid to profit from prices that soared in 2016 and into this year are undermining the government’s years-long push to cut capacity to make the steel industry more efficient and tackle smog.

Beijing’s crackdown has mainly targeted low-grade products like rebar, used mostly for construction. Rising inventory levels and recent falls in the prices, though, suggest output has been growing faster than China’s actual demand.

Source – www.reuters.com