China’s crude steel and finished steel outputs totaled 94.85 million mt and 119.13 million mt in August, up 8.4 percent and 11.3 percent, respectively, year on year, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on September 15. Crude steel production was up 1.6 percent, while finished steel output – up by 1.92 percent month on month, signaling still positive steelmakers’ outlook for steel demand. This also supported the high levels of iron ore prices.
In August this year, China produced 78.55 million mt of pig iron, up 5.0 percent year on year and up 0.47 percent month on month, though the year-on-year growth 3.8 percentage points slower than that recorded in July.
In the January-August period this year, China produced 589.4 million mt of pig iron, 688.89 million mt of crude steel and 844.69 million mt of finished steel, up 3.4 percent, 3.7 percent and 4.8 percent year on year, respectively, with the growth 0.2, 0.9 and 1.1 percentage points faster than that recorded in the first seven months.