China’s steel price index for Q1, Jan-Mar 2020, dropped by an average of 5.6pc to 102.29 points, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, said on April 23.
Steel production also dropped by 1.6pc to 267mn mt, a news release stated, attributing the drops to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The country’s production of crude steel and pig iron increased by 2.4pc and 1.2pc, to 199mn mt and 234mn mt, respectively, from the previous year.
The Q1 operating income and profit of large and medium-sized enterprises dropped by 5.31pc and 50.84pc, to CNY 950.092bn and CNY 18.322bn, respectively, as compared to Q1 the previous year.
China’s cumulative imports declined by 16pc to 14.286mn mt and imports of steel products went up by 9.7pc to 3.178mn mt, over the same period last year.
The price of iron ore fluctuated in Q1, with an average value increased by 35 points to 327.2 points from the year ago.
Fixed asset investment in the Chinese steel and iron industry declined by 1.2pc in the first quarter of 2020.