In the January-March period this year, China produced 220.97 million mt of pig iron, up 8.0 percent year on year, with the year-on-year growth 1.6 percentage point faster than that recorded in the first two months of the year, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on April 16.
China’s crude steel and finished steel outputs totaled 271.04 million mt and 329.40 million mt in the first three months this year, up 15.6 percent and 22.5 percent, respectively, year on year. The year-on-year growth of crude steel production was 2.7 percentage points faster than that recorded in the January-February period this year. Despite restrictions in Tangshan, producers in other parts of China managed to increase output in the first quarter in reaction to higher domestic demand. The pace of growth of finished steel output in the first quarter was 1.1 percentage points slower than that recorded in the first two months of the year.