Despite the fact that in June in China was produced slightly less than in the record May, given the fewer days in the month, it turns out that steel production in China is still growing.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of the People's Republic of China, the world's largest steelmaker produced 87.53 million tons of crude steel last month. This was less than a record 89.09 million tons in May and was the first monthly cut in production this year, but still significantly exceeded 80.2 million tons in June 2018.
Average daily steel production was about 2.92 million tonnes, up from 2.87 million tonnes in May.
The growth in smelting is taking place against the backdrop of reports of tougher measures to combat air pollution, which were based on total cuts in production activity in areas of environmental disaster.
Capacity utilization at Chinese steel mills fell to 66.02 percent as of July 12, the lowest level since late March, data provided by consulting firm Mysteel showed.
Blast furnaces in Tangshan, China's leading steelmaking region, will hover around 61 percent in July and August, analysts estimate. For comparison, the average value of this indicator in the first half of the year was 75.6 percent.
On Saturday, the Environmental Protection Officer said at the conference that China will continue to impose production restrictions in heavy industry and will tighten its methodology for estimating emissions from steel mills.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the China Iron and Steel Industry Association (CISA) said the demand for steel was driven by robust government investment in the construction sector.
“Almost 98 percent of the growth in steel production in the first five months came from the domestic market,” He Wenbo said.
