In July this year, China exported a total of 5.15 million mt of finished steel, down by 140,000 mt from June, indicating a third consecutive month-on-month decrease, but up 19.21 percent year on year, as announced by the Chinese customs authorities. Meanwhile, China's finished steel import volume in July totaled 1.18 million mt, up by 100,000 million mt from the previous month and increasing by 1.72 percent year on year.
In the January-July period of the current year, China exported 35.83 million mt of finished steel, up by 13.7 percent, while China imported 8.01 million mt of finished steel, down 1.3 percent, both on year-on-year basis.
Furthermore, in July this year China's imports of semi-finished steel amounted to 50,000 mt, while the country did not export any semi-finished steel during the month in question. In the first seven months, Chinese imports of semi-finished steel totaled 340,000 mt, up 54.5 percent year on year.
In July, China imported 73.14 million mt of iron ore, up 1,084 mt month on month and up 26.39 percent year on year, while the average iron ore import price during the month was $118.5/mt, declining by 12.2 percent compared to the same month in the previous year. In the January-July period, China's imports of iron ore totaled 457.23 million mt, up eight percent year on year.
Meanwhile, China's total exports of metallurgical coke in July amounted to 530,000 mt, down by 10,000 mt month on month, while the coke export volume in the January-July period was 2.04 million mt, up 194.7 percent year on year.