In the January-March period this year, China’s outputs of pig iron, crude steel and finished steel totaled 213.39 million mt, 256.55 million mt and 336.03 million mt, decreasing by 2.9 percent, decreasing by 1.9 percent, and increasing by 4.4 percent year on year, respectively, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on April 16.
In March alone, China’s outputs of pig iron, crude steel and finished steel totaled 72.66 million mt, 88.27 million mt and 123.37 million mt, decreasing by 6.9 percent, decreasing by 7.8 percent, and increasing by 0.1 percent year on year,
Due to the slack demand from downstream users and the declining trend of steel prices, steelmakers cut their crude steel outputs significantly in March. In the traditional peak season of March and even in April so far, demand from downstream users has not improved as market players had expected. For instance, in early April (April 1-10) the average aggregate daily crude steel output of large and medium-sized steel enterprises in China - all CISA members - totaled 2.1118 million mt, down 0.47 percent compared to late March (March 21-31) this year. The decreasing crude steel output in March provided solid support for the steel market, which has resulted in a rebounding trend of steel prices in April.