In the first nine months of the current year, China’s apparent crude steel consumption moved up by 12.3 percent to 587.4 million mt, while the country’s crude steel output increased by 6.3 percent to 638.7 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 2.8 percent to 10.3 million mt and its semi-finished and finished steel exports showed a decrease of 29.8 percent to 59.6 million mt, both on year-on-year basis.
Meanwhile, in the first nine months of this year, China’s iron ore imports increased by 7.1 percent to 816.7 million mt, compared to the same period of 2016. In the January-September period, the country’s iron ore output amounted to 975.7 million mt, up 6.3 percent year on year.