Posted on 20 Jan 2026
China's total crude steel output was reported at 960.81 million tonnes for the whole year of 2025, falling by 4.4% from the previous year, according to the latest release by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday morning. This was the first time since 2020 that the country's crude steel production fell below 1 billion tonnes, marking the lowest level in seven years, Mysteel Global noted.
For December alone, China produced 68.18 million tonnes of crude steel, down by a marked 10.3% on year, the NBS statistics showed. On a daily basis, the country's crude steel output averaged 2.2 million tonnes/day in December, still slipping by 5.6% from the prior month's daily average, Mysteel Global calculated based on NBS data.
The on-month decline was mainly due to the fact that some Chinese steel mills conducted maintenance on their steelmaking facilities at the end of the year amid the thinning demand from end-users, and some other integrated mills in North China and Central China faced mandated production curbs because of worsened air quality in these regions, Mysteel Global learned.
The result was in line with Mysteel's survey, which showed that by the end of December, the capacity utilization rate of the 247 blast-furnace (BF) steel mills across China under its tracking declined to 84.94%, lower by 3.04 percentage points on month.
Finished steel sales in the spot market remained weak overall in December, especially for construction steel, as outdoor construction in northern China had been dampened by low temperatures and snowy weather.
For December, the combined daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses under Mysteel's tracking nationwide reached 97,869 t/d on average, falling by 2,504 t/d or 2.5% on month.
China's finished steel prices showed mixed trends in December, with those of long steel products strengthening, while those of steel flats weakened. By December 31, Mysteel assessed the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar at Yuan 3,324/tonne ($477/t) including the 13% VAT, growing by Yuan 33/t from one month earlier, while the national price of Q235 4.75mm HRC under Mysteel's assessment declined by Yuan 28/t on month to reach Yuan 3,318/t including the 13% VAT.
For 2025, China's finished steel output totalled 1.45 billion tonnes with an on-year rise of 3.1%, while the production for December alone slipped by 3.8% on year to 115.31 million tonnes, according to the NBS statistics.
China's steel output for January-December 2025
| Dec 2025 | Jan-Dec 2025 | ||
Volume (mln t) | YoY (%) | Volume (mln t) | YoY (%) | |
Crude steel | 68.18 | -10.3 | 960.81 | -4.4 |
Finished steel | 115.31 | -3.8 | 1,446.12 | 3.1 |
Pig iron | 60.72 | -9.9 | 836.04 | -3.0 |
Source: NBS
Source:Mysteel Global
