During the first four months of 2020 (January to April) China’s steel production remained at a high level leading to oversupply of finished steel which hurt steel prices, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). China’s steel export also dropped in the period.
High output
In April, production of pig iron was 72mn mt declined by 1.2pc from the previous year, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data. Production of crude steel was 90mn mt and steel production was 110mn mt, an increase of 0.2pc and 3.6pc respectively from the year ago.
From January to April production of pig iron was 280mn mt and production of crude steel was 320mn mt, an increase of 1.3pc from the same period last year and an increase of 0.1pc from the first quarter. Steel production was 370mn mt declined by 0.2pc from the previous year and decreased by 1.4pc from the first quarter.
Steel prices continued to decline
China’s average steel price index was 96.9 points in April, down by 13.6pc from the previous year and declined by 2.5pc from the previous month. From January to April, China’s average steel price index was 100.4 points, down by 8.0pc from the same period last year and down by 2.3pc from the first quarter.
Steel imports and exports
According to China customs data, in April China’s steel export dropped by 0.1pc to 6.31mn mt from the previous year and dropped by 2.4pc from the previous month. Steel imports were 1mn mt, up by 0.6pc from the previous year and declined by 11.5pc from the previous month. During January to April, export of steel products declined by 11.7pc to 20.60mn mt from the same period last year and dropped by 4.3pc from the first quarter of this year.