In October this year, China produced 76.17 million mt of pig iron, up 9.4 percent year on year and up 0.51 percent month on month, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on November 16. Also, China’s crude steel and finished steel outputs totaled 92.2 million mt and 118.48 million mt in October, up 12.7 percent and 14.2 percent, respectively, year on year, with the year-on-year growths 1.8 percentage point and 1.9 percentage points faster than the increase rates recorded in September. Crude steel production declined by 0.4 percent from September, amid production restrictions in the north, while the small decline month-on-month reflected steelmakers’ willingness to continue producing in October, the second month in the traditional peak season for business.
In the January-October period this year, China produced 741.7 million mt of pig iron, 873.93 million mt of crude steel and 1.08328 billion mt of finished steel, up 4.3 percent, 5.5 percent and 6.5 percent year on year, respectively, with the growth rates 0.5, 1.0 and 0.9 percentage points higher than those recorded in the first nine months.