In May this year, hot rolled coil (HRC) output in China totaled 16.416 million mt, increasing by 1.6 percent compared to April, still reflecting positive market conditions, though the growth was much slower than the 8.2 percent increase seen in April.
In the January-May period this year, China’s HRC production amounted to 77.712 million mt, up 17.6 percent year on year, which was 0.5 percentage points slower than the increase rate in the January-April period.
Average local HRC prices in China moved up in the first part of May amid the rising trend in HRC futures prices and good demand, reaching a peak level in the month at RMB 6,645/mt ex-warehouse on May 13, though falling since then, to the lowest level of RMB 5,220/mt ex-warehouse on May 27, according to the SteelOrbis’ data.
Cold rolled coil (CRC) output in China in the first five months of the current year reached 17.904 million mt, up by 22.1 percent year on year, which was 5.7 percentage points slower than the growth recorded in the first four months this year.