steel output in China in October 2019 was reduced by one million tons, which is 1.2% less compared to October last year. In October 2019 China was produced 81 million tonnes of steel. This is the first decline in steel production year-over-year December 2017. In just the first 10 months of 2019 China was produced 829 million tons of steel, which is 6% higher compared to the same period last year.
in fact, the total steel production in the acquired volumes is steadily growing in 2014, with the result that steel production in 2019 will follow the same path with the increase in production compared to last year.
the Slowdown of GDP growth of China and increased attention to environmental pollution may partly contributed to the recent slowdown of steel production.
steel Production in China has a tendency to decrease towards the end of the year, resulting in production in the last quarter consistently lower than in the third quarter. The decrease in steel production in October may indicate that the same slowing can be expected in the fourth quarter of this year.
In the past, the growth of steel production in China led to the growth of iron ore imports, which in turn boosted the demand for bulk cargo transportation. However, Chinese steel mills are increasingly replacing imported iron ore, domestic scrap, which negatively affects the demand for shipping services.
while Chinese steel mills are producing record amounts of steel, the growth rate of iron ore imports remained in negative territory for the last 20 months. In the first 10 months of 2019 China imported 877 million tonnes of iron ore, which is impressive, but still 1.6% lower on an annual basis.
