China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has issued figures on the performance of the domestic steel industry in the first quarter of the current year.
In the January-March period, large and medium-sized steel enterprises in China incurred a total loss of RMB 1.034 billion ($164.13 million), with an average profit margin of minus 0.12 percent.
In the given quarter, the total pig iron output in China was 165.92 million mt, up 3.2 percent year on year. Meanwhile, the domestic crude steel and finished steel outputs in the quarter totaled 174.22 million mt and 222.46 million mt respectively, rising by 2.5 percent and 6.5 percent compared to the same period of last year. However, the above year-on-year increase rates were respectively down 3.8 percentage points, 6.5 percentage points and 7.2 percentage points as compared to those recorded in Q1 2011.
Meanwhile, in Q1 China exported 12.15 million mt of steel products, rising by 15.8 percent year on year, while steel imports came to 3.41 million mt, declining by 18.4 percent year on year.