China's apparent consumption of crude steel totaled 219 million mt in January-April this year, up 0.5 percent year on year, according to the data provided by China's National Bureau of Statistics and the Chinese customs authorities. However, when comparing the given periods, it must be taken into account that due to the leap year there was an additional working day in the first four months of the current year.
According to China's National Bureau of Statistics, Chinese domestic crude steel output totaled 233.99 million mt in the first four months this year, up 1.9 percent year on year. Meanwhile, as per Chinese customs data, China's imports and exports of finished steel in the given period totaled 4.54 million mt and 16.82 million mt respectively, down 18.3 percent and up 10.2 percent year on year, while the country's semi-finished steel imports for the period totaled 130,000 mt. Accordingly, it is calculated that China's apparent consumption of crude steel in January-April this year amounted to 219 million mt, up 0.5 percent or 1.01 million mt year on year.