In the January-March period this year, China produced 199.74 million mt of pig iron and 234.45 million mt of crude steel, up 2.4 percent and 1.2 percent year on year, respectively, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on April 17.
At the same time, in March, China’s crude steel production amounted to 78.98 million mt, down 1.7 percent year on year. The slowdown was due to still weak demand in the local market in China as many construction projects and downstream industries restarted operations only in late March or even early April. Much higher inventories, which had been built up in February, also put pressure on steelmakers. For now, the situation has already been normalized.
While crude steel output increased in the first quarter owing to the slight improvement in the first two months despite the spread of Covid-19, finished steel production in China indicated a year-on-year drop of 1.6 percent to 267.42 million mt in the January-March period of the year.