SHANGHAI, Sep 18 (SMM) – China’s output of rebar fell in August for a second month in a row, declining 2.6% from July to 21.91 million mt, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

Rebar output in August expanded 17.1% from a year ago. In June, China’s rebar output hit a record high of 22.69 million mt.

In the first eight months of 2019, rebar output in China reached 164.1 million mt, up 20.5% from the same period last year.

NBS data also showed that output of medium wide steel belt rose 9.7% from a year earlier to 13.12 million mt last month. This brought the tally for the first eight months of this year to 101.02 million mt, up 10.6% year on year.

Output of wire rod gained 8.3% year on year to 14 million mt in August. Output in January-August stood at 105.41 million mt, with a year-over-year increase of 12.4%.