Posted on 28 Oct 2022
Over January-September this year, seven of China’s 10 top steelmaking provinces posted on-year falls in their crude steel production, according to the latest data released by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on October 26.
Despite a more than 4.3% on-year drop, North China's Hebei province nonetheless maintained its position as the country's top steel-producing province over the first nine months, logging a total crude steel output of 167 million tonnes, the NBS data showed.
After Hebei, East China's Jiangsu province kept its ranking as the second-largest steelmaking hub among all China's 31 provinces and autonomous regions, with its crude steel output edging up 0.5% on year to 91.7 million tonnes by September.
Northeast China's Liaoning province still came third with a total crude steel output of 55.2 million tonnes over January-September, down by 5.9% as against last year.
Weak sentiment in both global and Chinese markets contributed to the on-year declines in crude steel output. On one hand, high inflation has put great pressure on the global economy. On the other hand, waning domestic demand, resurgent COVID cases across China and production cuts at steel mills all affected these steel hubs' output over the first nine months, a Shanghai-based analyst shared.
For September alone, however, eight provinces posted on-month increases in crude steel output, with only Southeast China's Fujian province and South China's Guangdong province showing slight declines, down by 0.9% and 0.2% respectively from the previous month, Mysteel Global noted from the NBS data.
The on-month increases in September occurred as many steel mills gradually resumed production with improved profit margins and an uptick in steel demand in September, the traditional peak season for steel consumption. In addition, Chinese government's stimulus policies also helped drive up crude steel output somewhat in the month, Mysteel Global learned.
Over January-September, China's total crude steel output slipped by 3.4% on year to 780.8 million tonnes, while for September alone, the volume jumped 17.6% on year to 86.9 million tonnes, according to the NBS statistics.
Source:Mysteel Global
