China, despite maintaining a flat crude steel production trend for the full year of 2023 at 1,019 million tonnes (mnt), has seen a slight uptrend yet again. NBS data maintained with BigMint shows that crude steel production rose 1.60% over January-February, 2024 to almost 168 mnt. This slight increase surprised markets as the expectation was the volume would fall especially against the backdrop of a still struggling real estate sector and falling domestic demand. The rise in output can be a function of a few factors. First is the sharp increase in steel exports over January-February, 2024. Secondly, the better performance of some of the downstream sectors. Manufacturing investment saw a significant 9.5% increase in February from 6.6% in December 2023, thanks to the government’s stimulus measures. Infrastructure investment also showed a 6.3% growth from 5.9% in December 2023.
