China’s steel sheet/plate exports totaled 32.73 million mt in 2020, down 15.0 percent year on year, according to the Chinese customs authorities.
In December alone, China exported 3.03 million mt of steel sheet/plate, up 11.5 percent year on year, while rising by 12.55 percent month on month.
In December, ex-China HRC export prices increased first, reaching their highest average level of $728/mt on December 28 amid support from the high levels of iron ore prices and local demand, while prices edged down slightly at the end of December and in January. The year-on-year increase in exports of steel sheet/plate was 6.9 percentage points higher in December compared to the increase recorded in November. This helped to limit the decrease in exports for the full year by 2.0 percentage points compared to the year-on-year decline of 17 percent recorded in the first 11 months of the year.