In the January-September period of the current year, China's crude steel output amounted to 618.00 million mt, up 2.3 percent year on year, as announced by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The growth rate in question was 5.7 percentage points lower than that recorded in the same period of last year.
In the first nine months of the current year, China's overall outputs of metallurgical coke and ferroalloys amounted to 354.34 million mt and 27.91 million mt, down 0.4 percent and up 6.9 percent respectively, both on year-on-year basis. The growth rates of coke and ferroalloy production in the given period were 8.5 and 6.2 percentage points lower than in the same period of 2013. Meanwhile, in January-September this year, China's exports of finished steel amounted to 65.34 million mt, up 39.3 percent on year-on-year basis.
As also indicated by the NDRC, in September this year China's composite steel price index issued by the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) was at 87.96 points, down 3.21 points compared to August. In particular, in September 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 2,946/mt ($479.8/mt), RMB 3,188/mt ($519.2/mt) and RMB 4,043/mt ($658.5/mt), down RMB 197/mt ($32.1/mt), RMB 155/mt ($25.2/mt) and RMB 53/mt ($8.6/mt) month on month, while indicating declines of 17 percent, 12 percent and 10.9 percent year on year.
In the January-August period of the current year, the domestic steel industry had realized an overall gross profit of RMB 104.7 billion ($17.1 billion), up 0.7 percent year on year.