In April this year, China’s pig iron, crude steel and finished steel outputs amounted to 75.97 million mt, 97.85 million mt and 121.28 million mt, up 3.8 percent, 13.4 percent and 12.5 percent year on year, respectively, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on May 17.
Production also indicated an increase month on month. Crude steel output was up 4.07 percent, while finished steel production rose by 1.18 percent, both month on month. Pig iron output went up by up 1.63 percent compared to March.
As a result of the latest increases, in the January-April period this year China produced 306.64 million mt of pig iron, up 8.7 percent year on year, with the year-on-year growth 0.7 percentage points faster than that recorded in the first three months this year. Also, China’s crude steel and finished steel outputs totaled 374.56 million mt and 452.53 million mt in the first four months this year, up 15.8 percent and 20.1 percent, respectively, year on year, with the year-on-year growth rates 0.2 percentage point faster and 2.4 percentage points slower than those recorded in the January-March period, respectively.