Reuters reported that China produced 68.32 million tonnes of crude steel in July, down 1.4% from the month before as mills began cutting output during the off season.

Data from China's National Bureau of Statistics showed that the daily production rate amounted to 2.20 million tonnes down 4.6% from a record daily rate of 2.31 million tonnes in June.

Data from the China Iron and Steel Association showed that large scale mills slashed average daily production by 2.8% to 1.757 million tonnes in the last 11 days of July, its lowest rate since mid April.

The monthly production figure remains 1.5% higher than the same period last year, even though numbers provided by CISA have shown only a negligible increase in apparent domestic steel consumption during the H1 of the year.

Much of China's additional steel output has been sold overseas, with steel product exports in July rising 14% on the month to 8.06 million tonnes. Total imports over the first seven months of the year have surged 37% to 49.07 million tonnes. Over the same period, China produced 480.76 million tonnes of crude steel, up 2.7% on the year.

China produced 94.76 million tonnes of steel products in July, up 3.7% compared to the same period in 2013 but down 3.4% on the month. Production from January to July reached 647.23 million tonnes up 5.8% compared to the same time last year.