In the first four months of the current year, China's crude steel output amounted to 270.07 million mt, down 1.3 percent year on year, as announced by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on May 29. The growth rate in question was 4.0 percentage points lower than that recorded in the same period last year.
In the first four months of the current year, China's overall outputs of metallurgical coke and ferroalloys amounted to 150.12 million mt and 11.05 million mt, down 2.3 percent and 4.5 percent respectively, both on year-on-year basis. The growth rates of coke and ferroalloy production in the given period were 1.1 and 13.7 percentage points lower than in the same period of 2014. Meanwhile, in the January-April period this year, China's exports of finished steel amounted to 34.31 million mt, up 32.7 percent on year-on-year basis.
As also indicated by the NDRC, in April this year China's composite steel price index issued by the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) was at 73.99 points, down 21.76 points compared to April last year. In particular, in April of the current year the average prices of 6.5 mm high-speed wire rod, 20 mm common medium plate and 1.0 mm cold rolled coil (CRC) were respectively RMB 2,568/mt ($414.2/mt), RMB 2,579/mt ($416.0/mt) and RMB 3,333/mt ($537.6/mt), up RMB 2.9/mt ($0.47/mt), down RMB 40.2/mt ($6.5/mt) and decreasing by RMB 155.5/mt ($25.1/mt) month on month, while indicating declines of 24.2 percent, 26.9 percent and 21.8 percent year on year.
In the first four months of the current year, the domestic steel industry achieved an overall gross profit of RMB 25.66 billion ($4.14 billion), down 35.5 percent year on year.