In 2019, China produced 996.34 million mt of crude steel and 1.2 billion mt of finished steel, rising by 8.3 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively, compared to the previous year, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on January 17. The pace of increase in crude output was 1.3 percentage points faster compared to the first 11 months of 2019. In 2018, China had produced 928 million mt of crude steel. Such a sharp output increase was supported by stronger demand in the local market, especially from construction. Moreover, Chinese mills were also actively increasing their efficiency by expanding their share of EAF-based capacities.
In December last year, China produced 84.27 million mt of crude steel, up 4.96 percent or 3.98 million mt on month-on-month basis. Decent demand and stock replenishments ahead of the early Chinese New Year holiday contributed to the rise in output in the given month. At the same time, output in December increased by 11.6 percent year on year. Finished steel production in China indicated a year-on-year rise of 11.3 percent to 104.33 million mt in December, 10.4 percentage points higher than the year-on-year increase in November.
It is expected that steel production in China will show another year of growth in 2020, though the pace of growth is expected to be slower. The CISA predicts steel demand in China will increase by two percent in 2020, supporting the operation performance of steel mills.