China Crude Steel Output Increases in Apr'20 on Easing Production Curbs

As per the recent data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the nation's crude steel output increased by 8% to 85.03 MnT in Apr'20, which was 78.98 MnT in the preceding month.

The nation's crude steel production moved up due to the following reasons:

1. Easing restrictions- The Chinese steel manufacturers ramped up steel production in Apr with the easing of production curbs, and other restrictions on allied industry activities (like port activities and land transportation) announced earlier in the year to counter the impact of the spreading COVID-19.

2. Increase in demand from major steel consuming sectors- Also, the government announced a stimulus package later in March, to revive the economy, which boosted the demand from the downstream steel-consuming sectors including the construction sector.

-- On the yearly comparison, the same continued to remain stable against Apr'19.

-- During the first four months (Jan-Apr) CY'20, the nation's steel producers churned out 319.46 MnT of crude steel, up by 1% compared with 314.94 MnT in (Jan-Apr) CY'19.