In the first three quarters of 2019, the operation of China's steel industry was generally stable. The output of crude steel in China is 748 million tons, up 8.4% year on year; the output of pig iron is 612 million tons, up 6.3% year on year; the output of steel (including repeated materials) is 909 million tons, up 10.6% year on year.
The amount of steel imports and exports has declined. In the first three quarters, China exported 50.31 million tons of steel products, a year-on-year decrease of 2.67 million tons, down 5.0%; and imported 8.75 million tons of steel products, a year-on-year decrease of 1.22 million tons, down 12.2%.
Steel prices have fallen. In the first three quarters, China's steel price index (CSPI) composite index averaged 108.58 points, down 7.17 points or 6.2% year-on-year. Among them, the long material index is 114.61 points on average, down 5.0% year-on-year; the steel plate index is 104.81 points on average, down 7.5% year-on-year.
Manufacturing costs have risen significantly. Since the beginning of this year, the prices of domestic iron concentrate, imported iron ore, scrap steel, coking coal and other major raw materials have generally increased, and they have continued to run at a high level. In the first three quarters, compared with the same period last year, the purchase cost of main raw materials increased by 31.7% for imported iron ore, 21.5% for domestic iron concentrate and 8.8% for scrap steel. The benefits of steel enterprises have declined significantly.
