Chinese mills produced 41.25 million mt of crude steel in July 2007. The country's top five mills produced approximately 8.7 million mt (21 percent) of this figure. Meanwhile, the top 70 mills accounted for 31.8 million mt, 77 percent of total output. Total crude steel production from January to July reached 279 million mt, up 43 million mt or 18.5 percent year on year.
The top steel producers which experienced considerable growth in terms of crude steel output are as follows: Taiyuan Steel, up 66.86 percent; Tianjin Steel, up 64.42 percent; Xining Special Steel, up 49.17 percent; Yonggang, up 45.94 percent; and Dazhou Steel, up 44.29 percent.
With regard to finished steel, China's 72 biggest mills produced 29.55 million mt (61.9 percent) of the total output of 47.72 million mt in July 2007. The five largest mills produced 8.4 million mt of this figure, accounting for 17.6 percent of total output. In July 2006, the 72 largest mills had produced 25.40 million mt of finished steel, accounting for 65.71 percent of the total output of 38.65 million mt.
Chinese leading mills produced 28.64 million mt of pig iron in July 2007. The production of the 70 largest mills accounted for 72.1 percent of total pig iron output, which was 39.67 million mt. In July 2006, the 70 largest mills had produced 25.97 million mt of pig iron, accounting for 74.8 percent of the total output of 34.70 million mt.
In July 2007, China saw a slight (2.1 percent) drop in the country's overall production compared to the previous month. However, both exports and demand from China remained strong and the outputs of crude steel, pig iron and finished steel have still continued their trend of rapid growth.