Mr Wang Xiaoqi vice chairman of China Iron and Steel Association said that “The average daily output of Chinese crude steel was 2.2 million tonnes in January to July. Thus, the output of the whole year is expected to hit 830 million tonnes calculated at current level.

According to the latest statistics collected by CISA, in January to July, the output of pig iron totaled 422 million tonnes, representing a YoY increase of 0.4% that of crude steel reached 481 million tonnes, up by 2.7% YoY. The average daily output of crude steel attained 2.2677 million tonnes and that in June hit 2.3097 million tonnes, breaking through 2.3 million tonnes for the first time.

Meanwhile, Chinese domestic consumption shrank, while steel exports surged substantially. In January to July, China exported 49.07 million tonnes, rose by 36.9% YoY.

Mr Wang said that “Currently, the situation of oversupply still exists due to overcapacity. According to data from CISA, 25 steelmakers out of 88 large and medium sized steelmakers monitored by the CISA suffered a loss of CNY 7.677 billion in the H1 of this year. Among them, 7 steelmakers reported a loss of above CNY 0.5 billion. The loss-incurring steelmakers reported deficits of CNY 5.322 billion accounting for a 69.32% share.”

Mr Wang also pointed out that resolving overcapacity is a long term task. The momentum of industry expansion has been weakened in addition to the already started projects.