In the January-February period of the current year, China's crude steel output amounted to 130.53 million mt, down 1.5 percent year on year, as announced by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on March 31. The growth rate in question was 3.2 percentage points lower than that recorded in the same period of last year.
In the first two months of the current year, China's overall outputs of metallurgical coke and ferroalloys amounted to 74.17 million mt and 5.25 million mt, down 2.8 percent and up 1.4 percent respectively, both on year-on-year basis. The growth rates of coke and ferroalloy production in the given period were 5.9 and 10.1 percentage points lower than in the same period of 2014. Meanwhile, in the January-February period this year, China's exports of finished steel amounted to 18.08 million mt, up 56.4 percent on year-on-year basis.
As also indicated by the NDRC, in February this year China's composite steel price index issued by the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) was at 76.07 points, down 7.97 points compared to December last year. In particular, in February 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 2,570/mt ($413.8/mt), RMB 2,643/mt ($425.6/mt) and RMB 3,615/mt ($582.1/mt), down RMB 284/mt ($45.7/mt), RMB 357/mt ($57.5/mt) and RMB 284/mt ($45.7/mt) month on month, while indicating declines of 23.7 percent, 24.9 percent and 17.6 percent year on year.
In the January-February period of the current year, the domestic steel industry achieved an overall gross profit of RMB 9.03 billion ($1.45 billion), down 45.2 percent year on year.