According to data released by the statistics bureau on November 15, 2021, China’s daily crude steel output fell by 6.1% from a month earlier to 2.3 million tonnes in October, which is the lowest since December 2017.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that the world’s top steel producer made 71.58 million tonnes of the metal, falling for a fifth straight month and was down by 23.3% from the same month a year earlier.

Weekly capacity utilisation rates at 163 blast furnaces across China plunged to 62.39% as of early November, the lowest since the week ended July 2, data from Mysteel showed, when some heavily polluting industrial activities were halted during the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party.

In the first 10 months of the year, China churned out 877.05 million tonnes of steel, down 0.7% on an annual basis, said the NBS.