In 2025, China’s outputs of pig iron, crude steel and finished steel totaled 836.04 million mt, 960.81 million mt and 1.44612 billion mt, decreasing by 3.0 percent, declining by 4.4 percent, and increasing by 3.1 percent year on year, respectively. This means that crude steel production in 2025 declined by 44.2 million mt, lower than expected by market sources, with most expectations having been for a drop of 40 million mt at the highest.
In December last year, China’s outputs of pig iron, crude steel and finished steel totaled 60.72 million mt, 68.18 million mt and 115.31 million mt, decreasing by 9.9 percent, 10.3 percent and 3.8 percent year on year, while down 2.6 percent, 2.4 percent and 0.5 percent month on month, respectively, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This was the lowest monthly output of the year after the previous low level of 69.87 million mt in November and the highest monthly volume of the year of 92.8 million mt in March. The low output in December was expected given the sluggish demand from downstream users during the traditional cold winter offseason and the need to meet annual output targets.