Chinese crude steel output in march at record high level

Despite the Chinese government priority to reduce crude steel production in 2021 and subsequent production restriction in the major steelmaking hub at Tangshan, China’s crude steel output jumped 19% in March 2021 due to the low base a year ago as well as the strong recovery in demand from end-users with their faster return to normal operations after the Chinese New Year holiday in late February resulting in high steel prices as well as strong margins prompting steel mills to produce at full throttle. The latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that China produced 94.02 million tonnes of crude steel in March 2021, up by 19% YoY as compared with 78.98 million tonnes in March 2020 and highest since 94.85 million tonnes in August 2020. As a result, China produced 271.04 million tonnes of crude steel in January-March 2021, up by 37.4 million tonnes or 16% Yo’Y as compared to 233.7 million tonnes in January-March 2020.