Affected by the deceleration of capacity release and the government's elimination of dated capacities, China's steel production has registered a sharp drop in its growth since November 2007, with a significant decrease being observed in growth during January and February this year. Meanwhile, China's exports have also seen a remarkable slowdown.
In the January-February period, China's crude steel production totaled 79.4476 million mt, up 4.7788 million mt or 6.4 percent year on year. This growth rate is down 16.7 percentage points compared to the increase rate registered in January-February 2007. Meanwhile, the average daily crude steel production in this year's January-February period reached 1.3241 million mt.
China's pig iron production in the January-February period totaled 75.632 million mt, up 5.1455 million mt or 7.3 percent year on year.
China's finished steel production for the first two months of the year totaled 89.0471 million mt, up 9.7532 million mt or 12.3 percent year on year.
The breakdown of China's steel production in the January-February period according to the various products is as follows:
Products |
Jan-Feb output (10,000 mt) |
Change year on year (10,000 mt) |
Change year on year (%) |
Profiles |
595.13 |
104.14 |
12.2 |
Rebar |
1412.54 |
5.63 |
0.4 |
Wire rod |
1179.8 |
13.99 |
1.2 |
Medium plate |
947.36 |
194.43 |
25.8 |
HR coil |
1625.47 |
342.76 |
26.7 |
CR coil |
545.74 |
57.91 |
11.9 |
HR narrow steel strip |
610.22 |
18.35 |
3.1 |
Galvanized sheet (coil) |
264.79 |
13.8 |
5.5 |
Coated sheet (coil) |
44.19 |
13.8 |
5.5 |
Electrical steel sheet (coil) |
74.62 |
13.25 |
21.6 |
Seamless steel pipe |
248.63 |
10.02 |
4.2 |
Welded steel pipe |
287.45 |
9.18 |
3.3 |
China's coke output for the January-February period totaled 52.4439 million mt, up 5.8685 million mt or 12.6 percent year on year.
China's ferroalloy output totaled 2.4785 million mt, up 237,500 mt or 10.6 percent year on year.
In the January-February period, China's iron ore output totaled 101.2181 million mt, up 20.0488 million mt or 24.7 percent compared with the same period last year.
In the first two months of the year, China's total exports of finished steel reached 7.25 million mt, down 17.2 percent year on year. Meanwhile, exports of semi-finished steel in the January-February period totaled 80,000 mt, down 92.6 percent.
In the period in question, China imported 2.67 million mt of finished steel, with a decline of 0.9 percent year on year, while semis imports during the same period totaled 30,000 mt, with a drop of 42.4 percent.
In the January-February period, China's net exports totaled 4.58 million mt of finished steel and 50,000 mt of semi-finished steel. Net crude steel exports for the period totaled 4.87 million mt, down 2.56 million mt or 34.5 percent year on year.
From January to February, China's coke exports totaled 1.69 million mt, down 9.7 percent compared with the same period last year.
Meanwhile, iron ore imports totaled 75 million mt, up 16.2 percent compared with the same period last year.