Zhang Guangning, president of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), has stated that China’s crude steel output totaled 340 million mt in the January-May period this year, down 1.6 percent year on year, compared to the 2.71 percent year-on-year rise in the same period last year, and constituting the first decline in Chinese crude steel output in the last 20 years.
Meanwhile, China’s crude steel consumption decreased by 5.1 percent year on year in the January-May period this year compared to the 3.29 percent year-on-year decline recorded during the same period of 2014. “Obviously, the surge in market demand has become a thing of the past,” the CISA president commented. He went on to state that steel enterprises should take effective measures to cope with current challenges and seize the opportunity to accelerate transformation and upgrading work.