Bloomberg reported that China’s exports of steel products during the first seven months of the year have surged to a record as domestic consumption falls amid increasing demand from the US and Europe.

According data released by China’s General Administration of Customs, the world’s biggest producer exported a record 49.1 million tonnes of steel products from January through July, an increase of 37% from the same period last year. Exports in July were 8.06 million tonnes, a 14% increase from the previous month and near the record in May.

Mr Ivan Szpakowski analyst at Citigroup said that “China’s domestic steel demand in July fell 2.9% from the same month last year and net exports as a share of domestic production was 9.5%, the highest since 2008. Finished steel demand will grow 2.3% in the US and 1.4% in the European Union this year.”

Mr Graeme Train a Shanghai based analyst at Macquarie Group Limited said that “This year has been a great year for steel demand in the developed world. We’ve seen big increases year-on-year in most regions so conditions have just aligned to allow the Chinese to export a lot of material. It has the capacity and with raw material prices coming off China has been the biggest beneficiary.”

In July, China imported 1.22 million tonnes of finished steel, increasing by 7.96% MoM while its finished steel imports in the January to July period amounted to 8.47 million tonnes up 5.8% YoY.