Chinese crude steel output dropped 4.6% in July

By  Paul Ploumis 17 Aug 2015  Last updated at  03:32:07 GMT

BEIJING (Scrap Monster): The latest data released by the National Statistics Bureau indicates that Chinese crude steel output declined further by 4.6% during the month of July this year, when compared with the previous year. The country had recorded its first half-yearly decline in crude steel production during Jan-June ’15 in nearly 20 years.

The drop in crude steel production is mainly attributed to declining demand from property sector and weakening economic growth.

The Chinese crude steel production in July ’15 totaled 65.84 million tonnes. The cumulative crude steel output by the country during the initial five-month period from January to July this year totaled 476.04 million tonnes, down 1.8% when matched with the corresponding seven-month period in 2014. Also, average daily crude steel output dropped by 7.59% to 2.123 million tonnes in July when compared with the previous month.

According to industry participants, Chinese steel mills had ramped up steel output during early-May this year, in anticipation of seasonal demand growth. However, recovery in iron-ore prices, weak demand and widening supply-demand gap has later on prompted mills to cut their production. The sharp drop in domestic steel demand has resulted in sudden surge in steel exports by China during the recent months.

Meantime, customs data indicate that Chinese iron ore imports peaked during the month of July. The imports totaled 86.10 million tons in July this year, significantly higher when compared with 74.96 million tons in June ’15 and 82.52 million tons in July last year. The cumulative iron ore imports by the country totaled 539 million tons during the initial seven-month period of the year.