In the first five months of the current year, China’s crude steel output amounted to 340.17 million mt, down 1.6 percent year on year, as announced by China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on June 30. The growth rate in question was 4.3 percentage points lower than that recorded in the same period last year.
In the first five months of the current year, China’s overall outputs of metallurgical coke and ferroalloys amounted to 187.81 million mt and 14.35 million mt, down 2.8 percent and 3.4 percent respectively, both on year-on-year basis. The growth rates of coke and ferroalloy production in the given period were 1.2 and 14.3 percentage points lower than in the same period of 2014. Meanwhile, in the January-May period this year, China’s exports of finished steel amounted to 43.52 million mt, up 28.2 percent on year-on-year basis.
As also indicated by the NDRC, in May his year China's composite steel price index issued by the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) was at 71.62 points, down 23.47 points compared to May last year. In particular, in May 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 2,483/mt ($400.5/mt), RMB 2,496/mt ($402.6/mt) and RMB 3,184/mt ($513.5/mt), down RMB 85/mt ($13.7/mt), down RMB 82/mt ($13.2/mt) and decreasing by RMB 148/mt ($23.9/mt) month on month, indicating declines of 25.6 percent, 28.9 percent and 24.7 percent year on year, respectively.