In August this year, China produced 87.25 million mt of crude steel, which indicated a rise of 2.4 percent or 2.03 million mt on month-on-month basis, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on September 16. Moreover, output increased by 9.3 percent year on year, 4.3 percentage points higher than the year-on-year rise recorded in July.
Finished steel production in China indicated a year-on-year rise of 9.8 percent in August, 0.2 percentage points higher than the increase in July, reaching 106.39 million mt in August.
In the January-August period of this year, China produced 664.81 million mt of crude steel and 803.67 million mt of finished steel, rising by 9.1 percent and 11.0 percent respectively, both compared to the same period of last year. The pace of increase in crude output was 0.1 percentage point faster compared to the first seven months of the year, with the annualized average crude steel production at around 997 million mt. This figure is 69 million mt above the 2018 level of 928 million mt.
Higher production in China in August has not pushed up export volumes, which declined by 14.8 percent year on year last month. But some rebound is expected for September, even though steel output may go down this month amid tighter restrictions before the National Day holiday.