In the January-May period this year, China’s apparent crude steel consumption moved up by 7.8 percent to 346.6 million mt, while the country’s crude steel output increased by 5.4 percent to 369.8 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 6.6 percent to 6.2 million mt and its semi-finished and finished steel exports decreased by 16.3 percent to 28.5 million mt, both on year-on-year basis.
Meanwhile, in the first five months of the current year, China’s iron ore imports showed a slight increase of 0.7 percent to 448 million mt, compared to the same period of 2017.