China’s crude steel output grew steadily up to November, gaining 5.5% on year to 961 million tonnes over January-November, or the same growth as that for the first ten months, according to the latest release from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on December 15.

For November alone, the country’s crude steel output came in at 87.7 million tonnes, down 4.9% on month but still up 8% on year, with the on-year gain down 4.7 percentage points from that for October.

The country’s daily crude steel output fell to the five-month low in November, or down on month for the second month by 1.8% to 2.92 million tonnes/day.

The on-month decrease in last month’s steel output was mainly attributed to the growing number of maintenance works among Chinese steel mills on their steelmaking facilities as well as the frequent but short-time restriction and iron and steelmaking in some regions of China especially in the northern part in winter months during poor air quality days.

China’s finished steel output, thus, recorded a similar trajectory in November, up 10.8% on year but down 1% on month to 117 million tonnes, and over the first eleven months of 2020, the country’s finished steel production added up to 1.2 billion tonnes, or up 7% on year, according to the NBS data.