In the January-June period of the current year, China’s crude steel output amounted to 419.75 million mt, up 4.6 percent year on year, as announced by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). A decrease of 1.1 percent had been recorded in the year-on-year growth rate in the same period last year.
In the first half of the current year, China’s finished steel output amounted to 551.55 million mt, up 1.1 percent year on year, while China’s overall outputs of metallurgical coke and ferroalloys amounted to 221.06 million mt and 17.16 million mt, up 2.5 percent and down 0.7 percent year on year, respectively. Meanwhile, in the given period China’s finished steel exports amounted to 40.99 million mt, down 28 percent, while its finished steel imports totaled 6.8 million mt, up 5.3 percent, both year on year.
As also indicated by the NDRC, in June this year China's average composite steel price index issued by the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) was at 98.70 points, up 2.44 points month on month and rising by 30.39 points year on year. In particular, in June 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 3,694 /mt ($543/mt), RMB 3,424/mt ($504/mt) and RMB 3,960/mt ($582/mt), up RMB 18/mt ($2.6/mt), RMB 66/mt ($9.7/mt) and RMB 106/mt ($15.6/mt) month on month, while rising by 52.5 percent, 38.8 percent and 29 percent year on year.