China’s crude steel production remained largely stable, rising a marginal 1% in CY’23. Where demand was concerned, while it remained positive in the initial part of CY’23, it started dissipating from March onwards. The demand push in Q1CY’23 was a knee-jerk reaction to China’s lifting of Covid restrictions in end-2022, which led to a release of pent-up demand. However, demand failed to keep pace with production because real estate performed poorly which led to a drop in rebar sales and production.
