In the first four months of the current year, China’s apparent steel consumption moved up by 9.7 percent to 250 million mt, while the country’s crude steel output increased by 4.6 percent to 274 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 7.8 percent to 4.56 million mt and its semi-finished and finished steel exports showed a decrease of 25.8 percent to 27.2 million mt, both on year-on-year basis.
Meanwhile, in the first four months of this year, China’s iron ore imports increased by 8.6 percent to 353 million mt, compared to the same period of 2016. In the January-April period, the country’s iron ore output amounted to 401 million mt, up 12.3 percent year on year