In the first quarter of the current year, China's crude steel output amounted to 200.10 million mt, down 1.7 percent year on year, as announced by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on April 29. The growth rate in question was 4.1 percentage points lower than that recorded in the same period last year.
In the first three months of the current year, China's overall outputs of metallurgical coke and ferroalloys amounted to 112.52 million mt and 8.20 million mt, down 2.0 percent and 4.8 percent respectively, both on year-on-year basis. The growth rates of coke and ferroalloy production in the given period were 1.7 and 15.4 percentage points lower than in the same period of 2014. Meanwhile, in the January-March period this year, China's exports of finished steel amounted to 25.78 million mt, up 40.7 percent on year-on-year basis.
As also indicated by the NDRC, in March this year China's composite steel price index issued by the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) was at 74.67 points, down 1.4 points compared to March last year. In particular, in March of the current year 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 2,565/mt ($413.7/mt), RMB 2,619/mt ($422.4/mt) and RMB 3,488/mt ($562.6/mt), down RMB 6/mt ($0.97/mt), RMB 24/mt ($3.9/mt) and RMB 126/mt ($20.3/mt) month on month, while indicating declines of 22.6 percent, 24.9 percent and 19.1 percent year on year.
In the first quarter of the current year, the domestic steel industry achieved an overall gross profit of RMB 18.13 billion ($2.9 billion), down 36 percent year on year.