China daily crude steel output hits 1.987mln tonnes in March

Latest statistics from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that domestic crude steel output reached 61.58mln tonnes in Mar, up 3.9% y-o-y; with daily crude steel output surging to 1.987mln tonnes, up around 60,000 tonnes from Feb and only secondary to last June’s 1.998mln tonnes.

NBS statistics also disclosed that in Jan-Mar this year, China cumulatively produced 174.22mln tonnes of crude steel, up 2.5% y-o-y; with daily crude steel output hitting 1.915mln tonnes, also higher than the average level of 1.875mln tonnes last year. If calculated this way, China’s full-year crude steel output may reach 700mln tonnes this year…

Some industry insiders said that remarkable inventory declines are noted during Mar to Apr over the years. Yet the falling rate this year stays unsatisfactory as the total steel inventory only slips 6.55% after 7 consecutive weeks of declines, the smallest drop since 2007 before which the dip margins of seven straight weeks from the highest level all stood at over 14%, and even hit 15.3% over the same period of last year, far higher than the margin this year.

However, it can be attributed mainly to the Tomb-Sweeping Holiday which exerted certain impacts on steel demand, as per analyses. That steel inventory in the market continues a stable downward trend remains unchanged.

This is an abstract from MySteel’s article ‘NBS: Domestic daily crude steel output hits 1.987mln tonnes in March’. MySteel is a professional steel website dedicated to providing a realtime news portal to China’s steel market, one of the fastest-growing markets in the world. If you want to subscribe to MySteel’s information and updates on steel prices and news, you can email to plinyshi@yeah.net or call +86 21 2609 3879.

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