China: Crude Steel Output Cross 900 MnT in CY18

As per the data released by National Bureau of Statistics, China's crude steel production has increased by around 11% Y-o-Y to 928.26 MnT in CY18. Previous year China's crude steel production was recorded at 831.7 MnT.

Though the monthly production has reported a decrease of 2% M-o-M to 76.12 MnT in Dec'18 against 77.62 MnT in the previous month. Nation's output in Dec'18 was lowest recorded since Mar'18 as it was 73.98 MnT then.

As per reports, profits of steel mills have plunged nearly 60% since November on stronger-than-expected supply after Beijing ditched blanket measures to cut industrial production over the winter.

Thus the environment ministry has vowed to adopt more efficient and targeted measures to fight pollution in 2019.

Outlook for 2019 - A government consultancy predicted last month that steel output would slip back to 900 million tonnes in 2019, curbed by cooling demand in major downstream sectors such as property, automobiles and energy.