The China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) issued a press release on April 28, stating that in the first quarter of the current year the pig iron, crude steel and finished steel outputs of large and medium-sized steel enterprises in China - all CISA members - respectively amounted to 157 million mt, 173 million mt and 161 million mt, increasing by 6.94 percent, 7.31 percent and 5.99 percent year on year, while the pig iron, crude steel and finished steel outputs of non-CISA members indicated respective year-on-year rises of 20.34 percent, 18.58 percent and 18.96 percent in the given period, with the output growth of non-CISA members much higher than that of CISA members. As previously announced by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China produced 195 million mt of pig iron, 231 million mt of crude steel and 269 million mt of finished steel in the first quarter of the current year, respectively increasing by 9.29 percent, 9.92 percent and 10.82 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, in the first quarter this year, China exported 17.03 million mt of finished steel, up 12.6 percent year on year, while it imported 290 million mt of finished steel, down 16.1 percent year on year, resulting in net finished steel exports of 14.13 million mt for the given period, which is equivalent to 14.72 million mt of crude steel production, up 2.56 million mt from the net crude steel volume exported in the first quarter last year.
At the same time, CISA-member Chinese steelmakers registered an overall sales revenue of RMB 968.5 billion ($144.3 billion) in the first quarter of the current year. In the given period, CISA-member steelmakers achieved a gross profit of RMB 37.5 billion ($5.6 billion), down 30.2 percent year on year. The CISA stated that the sharp rises in import iron ore prices negatively impacted the steel industry’s profitability in the first quarter of the year.