STEEL NEWS

China in July again produced a record amount of steel

China produced a record amount of crude steel in July 2020, as the government increased infrastructure spending while the manufacturing sector recovered from quarantine, Reuters reported.

The world's largest steelmaker produced 93.36 million tonnes of crude steel last month, up 1.9% on June and 9.1% on July 2019, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). of the year.

According to Reuters calculations based on official data, the average daily steel output in July was 3.01 million tons, up from 3.05 million tons in June.

According to data from Mysteel, production of hot-rolled coils and cold-rolled coils at the main factories increased by almost 28% compared to the previous month, while production of steel reinforcing bars used in buildings increased by 18%.

“As the rainy season drew to a close, demand for construction rebar has stabilized since late July and is expected to continue to recover in the coming months,” said Zhuo Guiqiu, an analyst at Jinrui Capital ahead of the data release.

Blast furnace utilization rates at 247 Chinese steel mills rose for the fourth straight week to 95.16% as of Aug. 14, according to Mysteel.

In the first seven months of the year, China produced 593.17 million tonnes of crude steel, up 2.8% over the same period in 2019.