China’s daily crude steel output rebounded in August

China’s daily crude steel output rebounded in August after three consecutive months of falls, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday September 10.

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Crude steel output averaged 2.138 million tpd during the month, up 1.2% compared with 2.112 million tonnes in July.

Total output for August reached 66.28 million tonnes, representing a year-on-year increase of 7.58 million tonnes of 12.8%.

“The incentive for the production increase could be that steelmakers began to make profit in July and kept their utilization rate at high levels since then,” a Shanghai-based analyst said.

Member mills of China Iron & Steel Association (Cisa) recorded a combined profit of 2.3 billion yuan ($373 million) in July, reversing losses seen in June, as Steel First reported.

During the first eight months of this year, China produced 521.84 million tonnes of crude steel, up 7.8% on an annual basis, according to NBS figures.

Meanwhile, calculating from Cisa data published on Monday September 9, the country’s crude steel output was around 65.82 million tonnes in August, up nearly 1.2% on a monthly basis.