China’s daily steel output sees month-on-month rise in November

SteelOrbis Shanghai

In November 2008 China's steel production recorded a year-on-year decline for a third consecutive month. Among the total 23 steel varieties, only five registered year-on-year growth in output, with the biggest increase of 116.3 percent observed in heavy rail production. As regards the other 18 varieties, production of large profiles saw the sharpest drop of 46.5 percent, while rebar output fell by 3.6 percent, and hot rolled coil output was down by 19.9 percent.

Nevertheless, as a result of expanding demand and climbing prices since late November, daily production of crude steel, pig iron, and finished steel all showed certain rises month on month.

China's crude steel production in November totaled 35.1889 million mt, down 4.9724 million mt or 12.4 percent year on year, a decrease of 6.6 percentage points compared with the decline rate in October. Average daily production during the month reached 1.173 million mt, up by 14,900 mt or 1.3 percent month on month, the first increase over the past five months. Meanwhile, crude steel production for the January-November period reached 462.96191 million mt, up 11.8621 million mt or 2.6 percent year on year.

Taking imports and exports into consideration, the newly-added supply of crude steel to China's market in November totaled 33.2689 million mt, down 3.6719 million mt or 9.94 percent year on year. From January to November, the newly-added supply reached 411.727 million mt, down 7.2422 million mt or 1.73 percent year on year.

In the month of November, China's exports of crude steel accounted for 8.05 percent of total national crude steel production; meanwhile, crude steel exports in the first eleven months of this year constituted 11.8 percent of total domestic production.

China's pig iron production in November totaled 33.5158 million mt, down 6.5005 million mt or 16.2 percent year on year. At the same time, total pig iron production in the January-November period reached 434.1446 million mt, up 4.2861 million mt or one percent compared to the corresponding period in 2007.

China's finished steel production for November totaled 42.3012 million mt, down 5.2301 million mt or 11 percent year on year. On the other hand, national finished steel production from January to November inclusive reached 430.7545 million mt, up 22.0551 million mt or 4.3 percent year on year.

The breakdown of China's steel production in November according to the various products is as follows: 

China's coke output for November totaled 20.2542 million mt, down 8.5534 million mt or 29.7 percent year on year. Meanwhile, national coke output for the January-November period reached 300.4823 million mt, up 5.2182 million mt or 1.8 percent year on year.

China's ferroalloy output totaled 1.0956 million mt in November, down 496,500 mt or 31.2 percent year on year. For the January-November period, on the other hand, national ferroalloy production reached 17.0489 million mt, up 1.239 million mt or 7.8 percent year on year.