In December last year, China’s outputs of pig iron, crude steel and finished steel totaled 66.7 million mt, 75.97 million mt and 119.1 million mt, increasing by 9.4 percent, 11.8 percent and 7.1 percent year on year, while decreasing by 1.16 percent, declining by 3.1 percent and rising by 0.24 percent month on month, respectively, as announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Crude steel production continued its downward trend in December amid the slack demand from downstream users and the approach of the Chinese New Year holiday (January 28-February 4).
In 2024 overall, China’s outputs of pig iron, crude steel and finished steel totaled 851.74 million mt, 1005.09 million mt and 1399.67 million mt, decreasing by 2.3 percent, declining by 1.7 percent, and rising by 1.1 percent year on year, respectively. The decline in crude steel production was 1.0 percentage point lower than the 2.7 percent decrease seen in the January-November period of the same year.
In early January (January 1-10) this year, the average aggregate daily crude steel output of large and medium-sized steel enterprises in China - all CISA members - totaled 2.065 million mt, up 10.3 percent compared to late December (December 21-31) last year.