SHANGHAI, Jun 24 (SMM) – China’s flat steel exports shrank sharply in May as the COVID-19 lockdown measures ex-China put in place in late March began to take their toll.
Data published by the country’s General Administration of Customs on Tuesday showed that China’s exports of steel sheets/plates dropped nearly 40% to 2.46 million mt in the month of May from April.
May’s exports were 27.5% lower than the same month of 2019, compared with a year-over-year increase of 5.1% in April.
The tally for the first five months of 2020 came in at 15.37 million mt, down 12% from the same period last year.
Customs data also showed significant declines in China’s exports of steel bars, angles and sections. Exports of steel bars fell 15.9% month on month and 11.5% year on year to 690,000 mt in May, while those of steel angles and sections plunged 35.5% month on month and 40.8% year on year to 200,000 mt.
China’s exports of steel wire and rods came in at 170,000 mt in May, little changed from a month earlier but down 11.5% from a year earlier.
China exported a total of 4.4 million mt of steel products in May, down 30.4% from April and 23.2% from May 2019. That took the tally for the January-to-May period to 25 million mt, down 14% from the same period last year.
