In May this year, China’s import volumes of steel bars and angles/channels amounted to 110,000 mt and 30,000 mt, down 4.7 percent and 35.6 percent year on year, while import volumes of steel plate and steel pipes/hollow profiles and respectively amounted to 940,000 mt and 40,000 mt, up 3.8 percent and 28.0 percent year on year, according to the monthly import and export data issued by the Chinese customs authorities.
In the January-May period of the current year, China’s steel bars and angles/channels imports amounted to 450,000 mt and 160,000 mt, down 14.3 percent and 10.2 percent year on year, while imports of steel plate and steel pipes/hollow profiles totaled 4.76 million mt and 170,000 mt, up 0.9 percent and 6.2 percent year on year.
As previously reported by SteelOrbis, in May, China imported 1.134 million mt of finished steel, up 8.5 percent month on month and increasing by 5.0 percent year on year. In the January-May period of this year, China imported 5.63 million mt of finished steel, down 0.7 percent year on year.