Posted on 24 Jan 2024
Crude steel output among the top 10 steelmaking provinces and autonomous regions across China totalled 724.49 million tonnes in 2023, higher by 0.6% from 2022, with five out of the 10 showing on-year gains in output and the other five dipping, new statistics released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show.
For December alone, total crude steel output among the leading 10 regions lost 11% on year to reach 47.13 million tonnes, with six posting on-year falls, the NBS data revealed.
Last month, many steelmakers in the major hubs had idled production facilities to conduct maintenance or slowed their production pace, December being traditionally an off month for steel consumption in China, Mysteel Global noted.
But on the other hand, steel producers still enjoyed relatively good profit margins on selling steel products when compared with December 2022 – when the country's steel market was under the impact of the pandemic – which prompted many steel mills to resume or ramp up their production.
As of late last month, the profit ratio among the 247 blast furnace mills under Mysteel's tracking came in at 28.14%, higher by 8.95 percentage points from late December 2022, Mysteel's survey showed.
Meanwhile, southeast China's Fujian province posted the lasrgest on-year rise in total crude steel output last year, with the tonnage climbing by 13.7% from 2022 to reach 34.06 million tonnes.
"Local steel producers have opted to allocate more hot metal to sections, flats or plates whose demand was relatively good and less subject to seasonal fluctuations," a market watcher in Fujian explained, adding that under these circumstances, mills in the province could maintain their profitability which in turn encouraged them to raise crude steel output.
2023 steel output among China's top 10 steel-producing hubs
Ranking | Province/Autonomous Region | Volume (mln t) | Y-o-Y (%) |
1 | Hebei | 210.51 | -0.7 |
2 | Jiangsu | 118.59 | 2.1 |
3 | Shandong | 74.56 | -1.9 |
4 | Liaoning | 73.44 | -1.4 |
5 | Shanxi | 62.92 | -2 |
6 | Anhui | 38.91 | 4.9 |
7 | Guangxi | 38.17 | 0.6 |
8 | Guangdong | 36.92 | 3.4 |
9 | Hubei | 36.41 | -0.4 |
10 | Fujian | 34.06 | 13.7 |
Total |
| 724.49 | 0.6 |
Source: NBS
Source:Mysteel Global
