Posted on 15 Apr 2026
China's finished steel exports fell by 9.9% on year to total 24.72 million tonnes in the first three months of 2026, according to the latest statistics from the country's General Administration of Customs (GACC) on April 14.
For March alone, China exported 9.14 million tonnes of finished steel, down 12.6% on year, Mysteel calculated based on the GACC data.
GACC does not provide commentary with its data, but several factors may explain last month's double-digit on-year decline.
First, escalating Middle East tensions after US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28 clearly impacted China's steel exports in March, with the region being China's second-largest export market after the countries of ASEAN.
Last year, China's exports to major Middle Eastern countries accounted for 15.6% of China's total steel exports worldwide. In particular, China's exports to the seven Persian Gulf countries embroiled in the conflict – Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Iran and Bahrain – accounted for 11.7% of total Chinese steel exports last year, as Mysteel Global has reported.
With the escalation of hostilities six weeks ago, many Chinese exporters have suspended their offers to the region, due to spikes in freight rates and related insurance coverage, market sources noted.
Meanwhile, the decision of China's central government to introduce stricter controls on steel exports via the implementation of a new export licensing system that took effect from January 1 also prevented the outflow of many steel products – especially those on which value added tax (VAT) had not been paid.
In addition, rising anti-dumping (AD) measures targeting Chinese steel in key markets in South America, Southeast Asia and Africa have also dulled the buying interest of foreign importers. For example, Brazil had imposed AD duties in February on many Chinese steel products including galvanized steel and cold-rolled coil while also hiking import tariffs on key steel products including grain-oriented electrical steel and hot-rolled pickled steel, as reported.
Closer to home, on April 2 Vietnam had announced that it was imposing a huge 27.83% provisional anti-circumvention duty on China-origin wide-width hot-rolled coil, as Mysteel Global reported. The measure is likely to deal another blow to China's steel exports, given the fact that Vietnam bought some 4.54 million tonnes of HRC from China in 2025.
Significantly however, the 24.72 million tonnes of finished steel that China exported during this year's January-March period towers above the tiny 1.34 million tonnes of steel the country imported in the first quarter, which was lower by 14.1% from Q1 2025, the GACC data showed.
Source:Mysteel Global
