China increased steel production by 1.6% y/y in January-February

In January-February 2024, Chinese steel companies increased steel production by 1.6% compared to the same period in 2023, to 167.96 million tons. This is evidenced by Reuters data.

The results exceeded market forecasts. It was expected that steel production in China would decline in January-February amid seasonally low demand and many steel companies carrying out maintenance of their facilities.

Average daily steel production for this period amounted to 2.8 million tons compared to 2.18 million tons in December and 2.86 million tons in January-February 2023.

In January, Chinese steelmakers produced 77.2 million tons of finished steel products, down 6.9% y/y.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2023, China produced 1.019 billion tons of steel, up 0.6% compared to 2022. Thus, the downward trend in the country’s steel industry has stopped after two consecutive years of declining production.

Last year, the Chinese government did not impose restrictions on steel production in line with its ambitions to reduce CO2 emissions, which contributed to an increase in production and revenue of local steelmakers.

China’s steel exports in 2023 increased by 36.2% y/y – to 90.3 million tons. Steel imports amounted to 7.64 million tons, down 27.6% y/y. Iron ore imports increased by 6.6% y/y – to 1.179 billion tons for the year.