SteelOrbis Shanghai
In August, China's steel production continued its rapid growth, but the increase range showed some relaxation. Crude steel production was basically unchanged compared with that in July, indicating that China's steel capacity release has been curbed to a certain extent.
China's crude steel production in August totaled 41.58 million mt, up 4.97 million mt or 13.6 percent year on year. Daily production was 1.34 million mt, up 10,700 mt/day month on month. Meanwhile, crude steel production for the January-August period hit 320.52 million mt, up 48.2 million mt or 17.7 percent.
China's pig iron production in August totaled 40.8 million mt, up 5.59 million mt or 15.9 percent year on year. At the same time, the total January-August production reached 307.53 million mt, up 43.1 million mt or 16.3 percent year on year.
China's finished steel production totaled 48.27 million mt, up 9.24 million mt or 23.7 percent year on year; while production for the January-August period reached 366.97 million mt, up 71.26 million mt or 24.1 percent.
Looking at finished steel production in detail:
Product | August Production (10,000 mt) | Year-on-year Growth (%) | Jan-Aug Production (10,000 mt) | Year-on-year Growth (%) |
Profiles | 297.51 | 8.06 | 2511.39 | 22.6 |
856.08 | 17.9 | 6554.24 | 16.5 | |
711.03 | 16 | 5319.85 | 16.3 | |
449.24 | 42.6 | 3379.13 | 40.3 | |
765.04 | 41.1 | 5570.16 | 37.6 | |
280.85 | 22.8 | 1882.55 | 37 | |
HR narrow steel strip | 322.66 | 6 | 2639.23 | 11.3 |
Galvanized sheets (coils) | 169.14 | 38.5 | 1343.6 | 57.6 |
Coated sheets (coils) | 24.79 | 35 | 189.9 | 27.8 |
Electrical steel sheets (strip) | 35.71 | 28.4 | 269.35 | 21.8 |
Seamless steel pipe | 164.02 | 21.9 | 1233.99 | 24 |
Welded pipe | 210.15 | 18.3 | 1493.2 | 13.4 |
With regard to the various product categories, the production of long materials remained stable or did not change significantly; however, flat steel production maintained a high growth rate, with the hot rolled sheet and plate production volumes in particular still increasing. Nevertheless, due to the commissioning of plate production lines in the first half of last year, the production had increased strongly in the second half of that year. Therefore, the increase rate of output is expected to show a decline year on year in the rest of 2007. Hot rolled coil production will also maintain a relatively high level due to the number of production lines that came on stream in the period from the end of last year to July this year.
In August, China's coke output totaled 27.95 million mt, up 3.39 million mt or 13.8 percent year on year. On the other hand, coke output for the January-August period reached 212.98 million mt, up 35.64 million mt or 20.1 percent compared with the same period last year.
Ferroalloy output totaled 1.46 million mt in August, up 175,500 mt or 13.6 percent year on year. January-August production reached 10.98 million mt, up 2.5 million mt or 29.5 percent.
August's exports totaled six million mt of crude steel, accounting for 14.44 percent of the total crude steel production for the month. This figure is 2.87 percentage points lower compared with that of July. The January-August crude steel exports totaled 53.06 million mt, accounting for 16.55 percent of total production.