Posted on 19 Jul 2024
Crude steel production among China's top 10 steelmaking provinces and autonomous regions ticked up by 2.8% on year to reach 66.3 million tonnes during June, with six of them posting on-year gains, the data from the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.
Notably, East China's Shandong, Southwest China's Guangxi, South China's Guangdong and Southeast China's Fujian all showed double-digit on-year growth in their crude steel output in June. Fujian posted the largest increase of 32.8% on year, with production reaching 3.2 million tonnes, Mysteel Global notes.
The surge in crude steel output in Fujian was mainly attributed to major local steel producer Sansteel Minguang which commissioned a new blast furnace in April, leading to significant on-year rises in its steel production the following months, as reported.
In contrast, China's largest and second-largest steel production hubs Hebei and Jiangsu saw their crude steel production decline on year in June, down 2.71% and 2.67% respectively to 19.4 million and 10.2 million tonnes, according to NBS.
Lower profitability and slack demand from end-users battered the production enthusiasm of Hebei's steelmakers during June, according to a market source.
For the first half of this year, China's top 10 steelmaking provinces and autonomous regions witnessed an uptick of 0.5% on year in crude steel production to reach 384.7 million tonnes, though the country's total output dipped 1.1% on year to 530.6 million tonnes, the NBS data showed.
Table-1 Jun steel output among China's top 10 steel-producing hubs
Ranking | Province/Autonomous Region | Volume (mln t) | Y-o-Y (%) |
1 | Hebei | 19.41 | -2.71 |
2 | Jiangsu | 10.21 | -2.67 |
3 | Shandong | 6.79 | 10.41 |
4 | Liaoning | 6.28 | -2.94 |
5 | Shanxi | 6.22 | 3.49 |
6 | Guangxi | 4.22 | 24.85 |
7 | Guangdong | 3.68 | 22.67 |
8 | Anhui | 3.28 | 0.31 |
9 | Fujian | 3.24 | 32.79 |
10 | Hubei | 3 | -11.24 |
Total |
| 66.33 | 2.77 |
Source: NBS
Table-2 Jan-Jun steel output among China's top 10 steel-producing hubs
Ranking | Province/Autonomous Region | Volume (mln t) | Y-o-Y (%) |
1 | Hebei | 113.49 | -2.37 |
2 | Jiangsu | 62.58 | -1.06 |
3 | Shandong | 38.1 | 0.74 |
4 | Liaoning | 35.88 | -6.88 |
5 | Shanxi | 31.89 | -7.59 |
6 | Guangxi | 23.61 | 18.82 |
7 | Guangdong | 21.96 | 20.20 |
8 | Fujian | 19.73 | 19.72 |
9 | Anhui | 18.87 | -2.23 |
10 | Hubei | 18.6 | 1.09 |
Total |
| 384.71 | 0.53 |
Source: NBS
Source:Mysteel Global