China's higher exports are only a fraction of production

China’s higher exports are only a fraction of production

Overall steel imports of China decreased 40.8% year on year to 5.97 million tons in the first quarter of 2005. Billet/slab imports declined 77.8% year on year to 390'000 tons. On the other hand, the total steel products and billet/slab exports of the country reached 8.38 million tons in the same period, increasing 3.19 times over the 2 million tons in the first quarter of 2004. The outstanding rate of increase in the quantity of steel products and billet/slab exports came out largely due to the comperatively little export quantity last year. In fact, the total steel products and billet/slab exports only held 10.77% of the total steel production in China in the first quarter of 2005. China became a net steel exporter in the first quarter with 1.64 million tons over the imports. The country was a net importer in the first quarter of 2004 with 10.5 million tons surplus over the exports.