On November 26, China's Ministry of Commerce published a report entitled ‘Analysis of steel and raw materials in the first three quarters of 2010'. According to the report, in 2010 it is expected that China's finished steel exports will reach 43 million mt while its imports of finished steel are expected to total 16 million mt. Meanwhile, China's crude steel output in 2010 will be around 630 million mt.
According to the report, China does not rely on imported iron ore as much as before. In March 2010, China imported 59.01 million mt of iron ore, and monthly iron ore imports have consistently decreased since then, except for a small uptick in July. The increasing output of domestic iron ore has been due to rising import iron ore costs, the MOC report said.