In December last year, China’s import volumes of steel bars, angles/channels, steel plate, and steel pipes and hollow sections amounted to 100,000 mt, 30,000 mt, 1.01 million mt, and 30,000 mt, down 4.0 percent, 31.3 percent, 0.2 percent, and 15.1 percent, respectively, year on year, as announced by the Chinese customs authorities. In 2015, China’s import volumes of steel bars, angles/channels, steel plate, and steel pipes and hollow sections amounted to 1.07 million mt, 350,000 mt, 10.77 million mt, and 380,000 mt, decreasing by 10.7 percent, 16.3 percent, 10.8 percent and 21.2 percent, respectively, year on year.
In December last year, China imported 1.18 million mt of finished steel, down 2.48 percent year on year, while the finished steel import volume in 2015 totaled 12.78 million mt, down 11.4 percent year on year, as previously announced by Chinese customs.