As announced by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), in Q1 of this year the added-value output of China's domestic large-scale enterprises increased by 19.6 percent year on year, up by 14.5 percentage points year on year, while an increase of 18.1 percent was seen in March, down 2.6 percentage points compared with January-February and up 9.8 percentage points year on year. In January-February, domestic large-scale enterprises' net profits reached RMB 486.7 billion ($71.364), up by 1.2 times year on year.
Production of main energy-intensive products increased at a high speed this March, prices of finished steel, cement, primary non-ferrous metals and most chemical products increased slightly, while prices of sheet glass dropped down from high levels.
In the Chinese iron and steel industry, in Q1 domestic production of crude steel reached 158.01 million mt, up by 24.5 percent year on year, with the growth rate up by 23.1 percentage points; production of finished steel reached 185.75 million mt, up by 28.6 percent year on year, with the growth rate up by 25.8 percentage points; production of coke was 92.46 million mt, up by 25 percent year on year; production of ferroalloys was 5.52 million mt, up by 37.6 percent year on year, the volume of imported iron ore fines was 155.03 million mt, up 18 percent year on year, the volume of exported coke was 130,000 mt, down by 12.8 percent year on year, the volume of exported finished steel reached 8.71 million mt, up by 69.5 percent year on year, while imported finished steel amounted to 4.11 million mt, up by 27.3 percent year on year.
Prices of finished steel increased slightly in March in the Chinese market. China's average steel price index was 114.52 points for the month, up by 15.29 points on year-on-year basis. Average price of 6.5 mm high speed wire rod, 20 mm medium plate and 1.0 mm cold rolled coil was respectively RMB 4,164/mt ($610.56/mt), RMB 4,369/mt ($640.62/mt) and RMB 5,837/mt ($855.87/mt), and increased by RMB 296/mt ($43.40/mt), RMB 395/mt ($57.92/mt) and RMB 321/mt ($47.07/mt) month on month, rising by 23.6 percent, 26.9 percent and 35.4 percent year on year.
In January and February, China's domestic iron and steel industry's profits totaled RMB 29.8 billion ($4.37 billion), up by six times year on year, with profits of mining and dressing of ferrous metals reaching RMB 5.18 billion ($0.7595 billion), up by 98.7 percent year on year.