In June, China’s crude steel and finished steel outputs amounted to 93.88 million mt and 120.72 million mt, down 5.6 percent and 3.2 percent month on month due to production restrictions, especially in the north ahead of the 100th anniversary of founding of the Communist Party of China. Nevertheless, the outputs are still 1.5 percent and 3.0 percent higher year on year, respectively.
In the January-June period this year, China’s crude steel and finished steel outputs totaled 563.33 million mt and 698.31 million mt, up 11.8 percent and 13.9 percent, respectively, year on year, with the year-on-year growth 2.1 percentage point and 2.9 percentage points slower than that recorded in the January-May period.
Pig iron production in China was 75.78 million mt in June, down 3.03 percent from May and 2.7 percent from June 2020. In the January-June period this year, China produced 456.38 million mt of pig iron, up 4.0 percent year on year, with the year-on-year growth 1.4 percentage point slower than that recorded in the first five months this year, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on July 15.
Chinese government called steel mills to limit crude steel production in 2021 at the level not above 1.065 billion mt produced last year. And since the output increased by more than 10 percent in H2, inspections teams will check the reduction of production in H2, market sources told SteelOrbis. “The inspections are reviewing cuts in Jiangsu Province and this will definitely work out, so prices will be high in H2,” a source said.