China's steel production reaches a new historic record

The latest statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that China's steel production reached an all-time high during the month of May 2014. However, the downturn in the real estate sector and the slowdown in economic growth raise concerns about a decrease in the growth in demand for steel products in the second half of the year.

According to government data, the country's steel production amounted to 70.43 million tons in May. Production rose 2.6 percent from May last year. In addition, steel production was up 2.3 percent compared to the April 2014 output. Steel production in May broke the previous record of 70.25 million tonnes, set in March this year.

The cumulative output in the first five months of this year was 342.520 million tons, up 2.7 percent from the output in the corresponding five months of last year. Average daily crude steel output fell from a record high of 2,295,000 tonnes in April to 2,272,000 tonnes in May this year. At the same time, in 2014, the daily output did not fall below 2,200 thousand tons.

Steel mills took advantage of the fall in iron ore prices, which boosted production in the country. The cost of raw materials has declined by almost a third in recent months, which has given a good impetus to an increase in steel production.