Chinese Steel Production Languishes as Market Awaits Stimulus
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China’s steel output has languished in the early weeks of the year, including a big drop in January, with measures to support the economy yet to translate into more work for the nation’s hard hats.
China posted record levels of lending last month, although that’ll take a while to feed through to building sites. In the meantime, steel production slumped 11% from last year to 81.7 million tons in January, according to estimates from the World Steel Association. While much of that can be attributed to a high base, more telling is the 5.2% drop from December, said Capital Economics, which expects output growth to remain soft in 2022 due to weak demand from the construction sector.