In March this year, China's producer price index (PPI) for its ferrous metal smelting and rolling sector rose by 21.5 percent year on year, 7.4 percentage points higher than the increase recorded in February this year amid the improvement in demand in the peak season of March and increasing raw material prices, and was up 4.7 percent month on month, according to data released by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on April 9. In the January-March period this year, China's producer price index (PPI) for its ferrous metal smelting and rolling sector rose by 15.1 percent year on year, 3.1 percentage points faster than the increase recorded in the first two months this year.
China's overall producer price index (PPI) edged up by 4.4 percent year on year in March, and increased by 1.6 percent month on month. Meanwhile, in March Chinese industrial producers' purchase prices rose by 5.2 percent year on year and were up 1.8 percent compared to February. In the January-March period, China's overall producer price index (PPI) rose by 2.1 percent year on year, while Chinese industrial producers' purchase prices increased by 2.8 percent year on year.