China’s crude steel output is forecast to decline by 2.2% or 23 million tonnes on year to reach 1.01 billion tonnes for 2022, Qu Xiuli, vice chairwoman and secretary general of China Iron & Steel Association (CISA), predicted on January 8.
The official data from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics showed that China produced a total of 935 million tonnes of crude steel over January-November in 2022, or 1.4% lower on year. For December, CISA estimated the country’s daily crude steel production averaged 2.42 million tonnes/day in the month, down 2.4% from November, according to Qu.
As for China’s finished steel exports in 2022, the total volume may achieve a 1% on-year rise to stand at 68 million tonnes, Qu said, attributing the uptick in exports to the relatively high steel prices in the international steel market.
In the first 11 months of last year, China exported 61.9 million tonnes of finished steel, edging up 0.4% on year, as Mysteel Global reported.
Looking into 2023, “China’s economy has strong resilience, great potential and vitality, and various policies will continue to take effect,” Qu noted, saying that “China’s steel demand may improve this year, while the global economy may face the risk of recession and the international market will become more complex.”
“China’s direct and indirect steel exports are facing greater pressure. At the same time, the continuous constraints of resources, energy and environment have put strains on (steel) enterprises’ operations,” she added.
Qu also called on Chinese steelmakers to make joint efforts to tackle challenges, so as to promote the domestic steel industry toward high-quality development.
In 2021, China – the world’s largest steel-producing country – saw its crude steel output nationwide decrease 3% on year to reach 1.03 billion tonnes, as reported.
Written by Rong Zhang, zhangronga@mysteel.com
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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