China's steel exports exceed 90 million tonnes

In December 2023, national steel companies in China exported 7.73 million tonnes of finished steel products, which is 3.5% less than in November but 43.1% higher than in December 2022.

As a result, China's total finished steel and pipe exports in 2023 reached 90.26 million tonnes, representing a significant increase of 36.2% from the previous year. If we include semi-finished products, this figure is expected to exceed 93 million tonnes, which would be the highest result since 2016.

In December, Chinese companies imported 665,000 tonnes of finished steel products from abroad, which represents an increase of 8.3% from November. However, there was a decrease of 5.0% from December 2022. It is worth noting that annual imports fell by 27.6% year-on-year to 7.65 million tonnes. If we include semi-finished products, the total should reach just over 10 million tonnes. This figure marks the lowest level of imports in at least the twenty-first century.

In December, the total iron ore imports amounted to 100.83 million tonnes, which is a decrease of 1.8% compared to November, but an increase of 11.0% compared to the same month in 2022. Throughout the year, China received 1,179.1 million tonnes of iron ore from overseas, which is a 6.6% increase from the previous year.