*
March steel output up 6.9% y/y to 95.73 million tonnes
*
Monthly and average daily output highest since June 2022
BEIJING, April 18 (Reuters) - China's crude steel output in March rose 6.9% from a year earlier to a nine-month high, official data showed, as mills ramped up output on improved margins and expectations of robust downstream demand during the peak construction activity season. The world's top steel producer churned out 95.73 million tonnes of the metal last month, the highest since June 2022 and up from 88.3 million tonnes over the same period in 2022, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Tuesday.
Production in March 2022 was capped by stringent COVID-19
restrictions and environmental controls. Beijing abruptly ended
some of the world's toughest COVID-19 curbs in December.
"The rising pace is totally in line with our expectation and
we expect output in April to see both year-on-year and
month-on-month growth given the remaining quite high operating
rate among mills within the month," said Pei Hao, a
Shanghai-based senior analyst at the international brokerage
firm FIS.
The average daily steel output in March stood at 3.09
million tonnes, the highest monthly average since June 2022,
according to Reuters calculations based on the NBS data. That
was up from 2.85 million tonnes for the same period in 2022, and
was also higher than 2.86 million tonnes over January-February.
Profitability among the surveyed 247 Chinese steelmakers
rose to 58.87% in late March, up from 38.96% by the end of
February, data from consultancy Mysteel showed.
However, some analysts expect maintenance and production
cuts to hurt steel output this month.
"The crude steel output will likely drop in April when some
mills either implemented equipment maintenance or reduced their
production," said Xu Xiangchun, a Beijing-based director of
content at consultancy Mysteel.
Output of the metal over the first quarter of 2023 was
261.56 million tonnes, up 6.1% on year, NBS data showed. The
total volume is the highest for the period since 2021.
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
China's crude steel output rose 6.9% year on year in March 2023 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
(Reporting by Amy Lv and Dominique Patton in Beijing; Editing
by Himani Sarkar)
