China exported 900,112 metric tons of semi-finished steel in July, up 147,470 metric tons or up 19.6 percent from the previous month and up eight percent from July 2006. Total semi-finished steel exports for the first seven months of 2007 reached 5.27 million metric tons, up 33.93 percent year on year.
Of this figure, common carbon slabs accounted for 471,454 metric tons, more than doubling from 227,765 metric tons in June, and up 22.25 percent from the same month of last year. Total exports of common carbon slabs from January to July reached 2.02 million mt, up 41.93 percent year on year.
On the other hand, common carbon billet exports came to 360,020 metric tons in July, a slight decrease from 364,092 metric tons in June and from 377,134 metric tons in July 2006. Total common carbon billet exports in the first seven months reached 2.39 million metric tons, up 36.58 percent year on year.
In July, China exported most of its semi finished steel to Taiwan with 186,940 metric tons; Thailand was second with 177,177 metric tons, S. Korea was third with 175,068 metric tons, while Vietnam was fourth in the list with 97,954 metric tons.
However, in the first seven months of 2007, South Korea was the largest semi-finished steel importer from China with 1.13 million metric tons, Vietnam was second with 867,408 metric tons, Taiwan third with 805,051 metric tons and Thailand fourth with 662,980 metric tons.
Before July, Vietnam was considering the imposition of new measures against semi-finished steel imports from China due to the strong import levels from this source. However, seeing very low figures in July, the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance recently decided to reduce the import tariff for all semi-finished imports.