China’s steel production drops for third straight month in August
Latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that China’s crude steel production fell for a third straight month in August 2021, hitting the lowest monthly rate since March 2020, as governments maintained curbs on production to reduce carbon emissions.
China produced 83.24 million tonnes of crude steel in August 2021, down 4.1% from July 2021 and well below 94.85 million tonnes in August 2020. However, China produced 733.02 million tonnes of crude steel in January-August 2021, up 5.3% YoY from the January-August period in 2020 down from about 10% YoY in the first half of 2021
Therefore, if the Chinese government’s goal to cap crude steel output at the 2020 level of 106 million tonnes is to be achieved, the monthly average rate of about 83 million tonnes is required to be maintained in the balance of four months of 2021. But if London based climate analytics firm TransitionZero’s recent assessment of a 4-7% YoY increase in China’s crude steel production in 2021 is to be believed,
China’s crude steel production in the remaining 4 months would average a pretty high figure of 94-102 million tonnes per month. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has pledged in January 2021 that it would keep its steel production in 2021 below 2020 levels.
China Crude Steel Production in 2020 was 1065 million tonnes, 2021 estimate is 1108-1140 million tonnes.
