SteelOrbis Shanghai
The latest official data show that China's crude steel production in May totaled 41.304 million mt, up 5.6 million mt or 15.7 percent year on year. The growth was 0.8 of a percentage point lower compared with that of April. The average daily production reached 1.3 million mt, down 44,000 mt/day month on month. Meanwhile, crude steel production for the January-May period hit 163.054 million mt, up 32.567 million or 20 percent.
China's pig iron production in May totaled 39.545 million mt, up 5.08 million mt or 14.7 percent year on year. At the same time, total Jan-May production reached 159.032 million mt, up 27.88 million mt or 17.5 percent.
China's finished steel production totaled 47.505 million mt, up 7.787 million mt or 19.6 percent year on year. On the other hand, production for the Jan-May period reached 219.095 million mt, up 42.284 million mt or 23.9 percent.
In May, China's iron ore output totaled 60.505 million mt, up 12.948 million mt or 27.2 percent compared with the same period last year. Jan-May iron ore output reached 252.276 million mt, up 61.316 million mt or 32.1 percent year on year.
China's coke output for May totaled 27.41 million mt, up 4.246 million mt or 18.38 percent year on year. Meanwhile, coke output for the Jan-May period reached 128.023 million mt, up 22.824 million mt or 21.7 percent year on year.
Ferroalloy output totaled 1.497 million mt in May, up 316,000 mt or 26.8 percent year on year. January-May production reached 6.439 million mt, up 1.8 million mt or 32.1 percent year on year.
Taking imports and exports into account, China's crude steel supply was 35.27 million mt in the domestic market in May, up 7.2 percent year on year, constituting a considerable rebound compared with April's growth, but still relatively low.
May's exports totaled 7.45 million mt of crude steel, accounting for 18.5 percent of total crude steel production for the month. This figure is still much higher than the 10 percent share of total production approved by the steel industry.