Taking imports and exports into consideration, the newly-added supply of crude steel to China's market in March totaled 45.1289 million mt, up 3.05 million mt or 7.25 percent year on year. From January to March, the newly-added supply reached 126.333 million mt, up 9.02 million mt or 7.69 percent year on year.
In the month of March, China's exports of crude steel accounted for 3.7 percent of total national crude steel production; meanwhile, crude steel exports in the first three months of this year constituted 4.03 percent of total domestic production.
China's pig iron production in March totaled 43.2179 million mt, up 1.6291 million mt or 3.9 percent year on year. At the same time, total pig iron production in the January-March period reached 122.3758 million mt, up 5.039 million mt or 4.3 percent compared to the corresponding period in 2008.
China's finished steel production for March totaled 53.0855 million mt, up 625,100 mt or 1.2 percent year on year. On the other hand, national finished steel production from January to March inclusive reached 144.7289 million mt, up 3.9058 million mt or 2.8 percent year on year.
The breakdown of China's finished steel production in March according to the various products is as follows:
China's coke output for March totaled 25.9135 million mt, down 1.903 million mt or 6.8 percent year on year. Meanwhile, national coke output for the January-March period reached 74.012 million mt, up 4.6718 million mt or 5.9 percent year on year.
China's ferroalloy output totaled 1.5742 million mt in March, down 114,800 mt or 6.8 percent year on year. For the January-March period, on the other hand, national ferroalloy production reached 3.9289 million mt, down 299,000 mt or 7.1 percent year on year.
In March, China's iron ore output totaled 61.7223 million mt, down 709,500 mt or 1.1 percent compared with the same month last year. The January-March iron ore output reached 166.7162 million mt, up 4.21 million mt or 2.6 percent year on year.