At the National Steel Industry Forum held in Dalian on July 12-13, Li Yizhong, the Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology, stated that China's crude steel output in 2010 will increase by 10 percent year on year to 620-630 million mt.
Minister Li said that in the first five months of the current year China's crude steel output totaled 269 million mt, up 23.8 percent year on year. Meanwhile, Chinese daily crude steel output slowed down a little in June.
As for the declining finished steel prices, Minister Li Yizhong stated that this is caused by the rapid release of output capacity. The high raw material costs and low finished steel prices are causing some steel enterprises to incur losses, he added.