In the first eight months of the current year, China’s apparent crude steel consumption moved up by 11.3 percent to 519.1 million mt, while the country’s crude steel output increased by 5.6 percent to 566.4 million mt, both year on year, according to the China report from the World Steel Association (worldsteel).
In the given period, China’s semi-finished and finished steel product imports increased by 1.3 percent to 9.03 million mt and its semi-finished and finished steel exports showed a decrease of 29 percent to 54.5 million mt, both on year-on-year basis.
Meanwhile, in the first eight months of this year, China’s iron ore imports increased by 6.7 percent to 714 million mt, compared to the same period of 2016. In the January-August period, the country’s iron ore output amounted to 863.8 million mt, up six percent year on year.