In December last year, China’s import volumes of steel bars and steel plate amounted to 100,000 mt and 1.01 million mt, up 3.0 percent and 1.3 percent year on year, while its import volumes of steel pipes/hollow profiles and angles/channels totaled 30,000 mt and 40,000 mt, down 9.0 percent and 3.1 percent year on year, according to the monthly import and export data issued by the Chinese customs authorities.
In 2017, China’s import volumes of steel bars, angles/channels, and steel pipes/hollow profiles amounted to 1.21 million mt, 400,000 mt and 410,000 mt, up 2.0 percent, 16.7 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively, year on year, while its steel plate imports amounted to 11.06 million mt, down 0.2 percent year on year.
As previously reported by SteelOrbis, in December last year China imported 1.20 million mt of finished steel, increasing by 0.9 percent year on year. In the full year, China’s imports of finished steel totaled 13.30 million mt, rising by 0.6 percent year on year.