[SMM Steel] Global Crude Steel Output Falls 1.9% YoY in April 2026

Recently, the central work safety assessment and inspection teams went deep into eight provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) — Hebei, Shanxi, Heilongjiang, Anhui, Hunan, Guangxi, Chongqing, and Xinjiang — to carry out rigorous, thorough, and meticulous open and undercover inspections for Q2 and Q3. They enforced the law with seriousness, resolve, and a hard-line approach, cracking down heavily on all types of illegal and unlawful activities and resolutely preventing and curbing serious and major accidents. The inspection teams headed straight to the sites and conducted in-depth investigations. Any major accident hazards discovered will be referred to provincial Party committees and governments for verification and rectification, accountability tracing, and strict handling. Concurrently, special inspections on regulatory enforcement issues were launched, with strict investigations into illegal and unlawful acts, fraud, and other misconduct in work safety, as well as prominent problems such as corruption and work-style violations in this field.

At 4:15 PM on June 8, 2026, a ladle explosion at the SMS-1 steelmaking shop of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) — operated by Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) — unleashed molten metal at over 1,500°C onto the working platform below Caster-2. According to a preliminary report by India's Chief Inspector of Factories, the cause was a sudden release of gas entrapped within the liquid steel, which ruptured the ladle seal before the sliding gate was opened, triggering a catastrophic spill.

According to China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., from January to May this year, national railways shipped a total of 1.67 billion mt of cargo, up 1.8% YoY; the daily average loaded wagons reached 186,300, up 2.8% YoY, with a record high of 202,400 wagons loaded on May 2. Data shows that from January to May, national railway-rail-water intermodal volume reached 7.58 million TEUs, up 11.0% YoY, and cumulative bookings for the "single-document" logistics product stood at 47,000 TEUs. To further improve commodity vehicle transport services, the railway authorities provided end-to-end logistics solutions. From January to May, national railways shipped a total of 824,000 export commodity vehicles, up 55.5% YoY, of which 422,000 were NEVs, up 110.3% YoY, establishing a "fast lane" for Chinese automakers to go global. In terms of ensuring the transport of key goods, from January to May, national railways shipped 48.806 million mt of grain, up 11.9% YoY. The railway authorities actively supported peak summer demand by increasing the transport of thermal coal for power supply. From January to May, national railways shipped 870 million mt of coal, of which 580 million mt was thermal coal, and coal inventories at direct-supply power plants nationwide remained at relatively high levels.