In October this year, China produced 81.52 million mt of crude steel, down 1.5 percent or 1.25 million mt on month-on-month basis, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on November 14. The production restriction measures in October to ensure good air quality, the National Day holiday during the first week of the month and the somewhat weaker demand and tighter margins of mills contributed to the decline in output. At the same time, output in October decreased by 0.6 percent year on year, compared to a 2.2 percent year-on-year rise in September.
Finished steel production in China indicated a year-on-year rise of 3.5 percent to 102.64 million mt in October, 3.4 percentage points lower than the year-on-year increase in September.
In the January-October period of this year, China produced 829.22 million mt of crude steel and 1.01 billion mt of finished steel, rising by 7.4 percent and 9.8 percent respectively, both compared to the same period last year. The pace of increase in crude output was one percentage point lower compared to the first nine months of the year. However, the annualized average crude steel production came to around 995.06 million mt, still much higher than China’s crude steel output of 928 million mt in 2018.
