In the January-March period this year, China’s apparent crude steel consumption moved up by 9.2 percent to 200.3 million mt, while the country’s crude steel output increased by 5.4 percent to 212.2 million mt, both year on year, according to the China report from the World Steel Association (worldsteel).
In the given period, China’s semi-finished and finished steel product imports increased by 7.4 percent to 3.8 million mt and its semi-finished and finished steel exports decreased by 26.4 percent to 15.2 million mt, both on year-on-year basis.
Meanwhile, in the first three months of the current year, China’s iron ore imports showed a slight decrease of 0.1 percent to 270.5 million mt, compared to the same period of 2017.