In the January-August period of the current year, China's crude steel output amounted to 550.10 million mt, up 2.6 percent year on year, as announced by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The growth rate in question was 5.2 percentage points lower than that recorded in the same period of last year.
In the first eight months of the current year, China's overall outputs of metallurgical coke and ferroalloys amounted to 314.29 million mt and 24.59 million mt, down 0.3 percent and up 7.6 percent respectively, both on year-on-year basis. The growth rates of coke and ferroalloy production in the given period were 7.9 and 2.7 percentage points lower than in the same period of 2013. Meanwhile, in January-August this year, China's exports of finished steel amounted to 56.83 million mt, up 35.4 percent on year-on-year basis.
As also indicated by the NDRC, in August this year China's composite steel price index issued by the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) was at 91.17 points, down 0.99 points compared to July. In particular, in August the average prices of 6.5 mm high-speed wire rod, 20 mm common medium plate and 1.0 mm cold rolled coil (CRC) were respectively RMB 3,143/mt ($510.23/mt), RMB 3,343/mt ($542.69/mt) and RMB 4,096/mt ($664.94/mt), down RMB 62/mt ($10.06/mt), RMB 64/mt ($10.39/mt) and RMB 23/mt ($3.73/mt) month on month, while indicating declines of 12.6 percent, 9.7 percent and 9.3 percent year on year.
In the January-July period of the current year, the domestic steel industry had realized an overall gross profit of RMB 89.0 billion ($14.45 billion), up 4.9 percent year on year.