In the first nine months of 2026, production volumes of pig iron, steel and finished rolled products in China stood at 628.4 million tonnes, 724.8 million tonnes and 1.07 billion tonnes respectively. This represents a year-on-year decline of 3%, 2.9% and 2.0%, respectively. This was reported by SteelOrbis, citing the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS).
The rate of decline in steel production over the nine-month period slowed by 0.2 percentage points compared with the figures for January–August. At the same time, weak demand from the manufacturing sectors continued to exert downward pressure on the steel market in September.
In September, production volumes were distributed as follows:
- Steel — 73.6 million tonnes (+0.1% compared with September last year, but -1.4% compared with August).
- Cast iron — 65.3 million tonnes (-1.4% year-on-year and -3.4% month-on-month).
- Finished steel products — 118.2 million tonnes (-3.8% year-on-year, but +3.0% compared with August).
It should be noted that in September this year, China increased its steel exports by 3.3% compared with the previous month, to 10.49 million tonnes. Compared with the same period in 2025, the figure rose by 0.3%. Between January and September, Chinese steelmakers exported 85.64 million tonnes of steel products, down 2.6% year-on-year.
As reported by GMK Center, steel production in China fell below the 1 billion metric tonne mark by the end of 2025, reaching its lowest level since 2018. Last year, the country produced 960.8 million metric tonnes of steel, which is 4.4% less than in 2024. The decline was a consequence of the protracted crisis in the property market, which significantly curbed domestic demand for steel products.
Courtesy : https://gmk.center/en/news/steel-production-in-china-fell-by-2-9-y-y-in-january-september/