China increased steel production in April

China produced 69.42 million tonnes of steel in April, up 0.5 percent on an annualized basis, the Bureau of Statistics said. Factories are looking to take advantage of higher profit margins.

At the same time, the volume of production in April is slightly below the record 70.65 million tons of crude steel in March.

Output during the first four months of this year has now reached 261.42 million tonnes, down 2.3 percent from the same period last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.