The latest official data show that China's crude steel production in June totaled 42.12 million mt, up 14.64 percent year on year. The growth was 1.06 percentage points lower compared with that of May. The average daily production was 1.4 million mt, up 100,000 mt/day month on month. Meanwhile, crude steel production for the January-June period hit 237.58 million mt, up 19 percent.
China's pig iron production in June totaled 40.04 million mt, up 13.7 percent year on year. At the same time, total January-June production reached 226.81 million mt, up 16.84 percent year on year.
China's finished steel production totaled 49.19 million mt, up 21.8 percent year on year. On the other hand, production for the Jan-June period reached 270.67 million mt, up 23.9 percent.
In June, China's iron ore output totaled 67.78 million mt, up 19.16 percent compared with the same period last year. January-June iron ore output reached 321.28 million mt, up 29.28 percent year on year.
China's coke output for June totaled 28.88 million mt, up 18.36 percent year on year. Meanwhile, coke output for the January-June period reached 156.81 million mt, up 21 percent year on year.
Ferroalloy output totaled 1.63 million mt in June, up 24.88 percent year on year. January-June production reached 8.08 million mt, up 35.33 percent year on year.
Looking at finished steel production in detail, China produced 3.8 million mt of rebars in June, up 34 percent year on year, and the total throughout January-June reached 20.42 million mt, up 11.5 percent. Meanwhile, the country produced 8.22 million mt of wire rods in June, up 9.1 percent year on year. The cumulative figure for the first six months of the year reached 48.48 million mt, up 15.5 percent. Medium plate production reached 1.46 million mt in June, up 29.1 percent year on year, while the total figure reached 8.33 million mt for the first six months, up 42.4 percent year on year. In the same month, hot rolled sheet production was 2.41 million mt, up 19.5 percent year on year; reaching a total of 14.29 million mt through January-June, up 36.5 percent. Cold rolled sheet production in June was 8.49 million mt, up 40.4 percent year on year. The total CR production volume in the first six months reached 46.2 million mt, up 85.7 percent year on year.
Looking at the month on month figures, hot rolled sheet production decreased nearly 130,000 mt month month in June, while the other products either saw a slight increase or retained their production levels of the month of May.