According to the latest figures issued by China's Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP), in March this year the purchasing managers index (PMI) of the Chinese steel industry was up 6.5 percentage points month on month, rising to 49.3 percent.
In the given period, the domestic steel industry's new orders index rebounded to 52.7 percent, 16.7 percentage points higher than in February. At the same time, its new export orders index jumped up by 4.5 percentage points to 52.1 percent in March. The CFLP pointed out that as of March 30 total market inventory of the main steel products in 26 cities in China came to 18.17 million mt, down 278,300 mt week on week, indicating a decline for the sixth consecutive week.