According to the latest report issued by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), steel output in China increased in 2019, but declining finished steel prices and rising raw material prices caused Chinese steelmakers’ profitability to decrease in the given year.
In the year of 2019, sales revenues of steelmakers in China which are members of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) amounted to RMB 4.27 trillion, up 10.1 percent year on year, while the steelmakers recorded an aggregate gross profit of RMB 188.994 billion, down 30.9 percent year on year, the CISA stated.
In 2019, demand for steel in China was good as downstream industries, including infrastructure and real estate, showed stable development, resulting in apparent consumption of crude steel amounting to 940 million mt, up eight percent year on year.