China’s steel sector saw output expansion in the first quarter of the year, according to the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA).
In the January-March period, crude steel output rose 15.6 percent year on year to 271 million tonnes.
The output was up 17.3 percent from the same period in 2019, bringing the average growth for the past two years to 8.3 percent, said the CISA, citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
The output of pig iron rose 8 percent from a year earlier to 221 million tonnes during the period, the data showed.
As downstream industries continue to recover, their demand for steel products is surging, the CISA said.
In the first three months of the year, China’s apparent consumption of crude steel stood at 258.96 million tonnes, up 15.3 percent year on year, said the CISA.
