China’s April crude steel output hits new record high at 76.7 million mt, up 5% on year

21May 2018

China’s crude steel output in April hit a new record high at 76.7 million mt, up 4.8% year on year, data released Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

The daily crude output in April averaged at 2.56 million mt, up 7.1% from the daily figure in March.

April’s annualized output at 933 million mt was up by a hefty 12.2% from 2017’s output of 832 million mt.

The improvement in Chinese steelmakers’ profit was the main driver behind the higher output, according to market sources.

In April, the average profit from Chinese rebar and hot rolled coil sales averaged $127/mt and $131/mt, respectively, S&P Global Platts analysis shows.

Over January-April, China’s crude steel output totalled 288.97 million mt, up 5% on the year.

Meanwhile, China’s pig iron output inched down 0.4% year on year to 63.11 million mt in April. In the first four months of this year, pig iron output totalled 238.78 million mt, down 1.2% on the year.

The disparity in China’s pig iron and crude steel output changes was largely because Chinese steelmakers have opted to employ more electric arc furnaces, which consume mainly ferrous scrap instead of pig iron.

Source: PLATTS