Output reached a record high. From January to June 2013, China produced 390 million tons of crude steel, up 7.4% year on year and 5.6 percentage points higher than the same period in 2012. In the first six months, the average daily crude steel output was 2.154 million tons, equivalent to the annual crude steel output of 786 million tons. Among them, February reached a record high of 2.208 million tons, although there was a drop in March to June, but still remained at a high level of more than 2.1 million tons. From January to June, the crude steel output of Hebei and Jiangsu increased by 6.8% and 13.2% year on year, respectively. The new output of the two provinces accounted for 42.4% of the total increase of 26.94 million tons in China, and Shanxi, Liaoning, Henan and Yunnan provinces also increased by more than 1 million tons. From January to June, the crude steel output of key large and medium-sized steel enterprises increased by 5.5% year on year, 2 percentage points lower than the national average, but 60% of the increase still came from key large and medium-sized steel enterprises.

Low steel price operation. From January to June 2013, the overall performance of the domestic steel market was depressed. With the substantial release of crude steel capacity, the market supply and demand fall into an imbalance state, steel prices into the downward channel, has been weak decline for more than 4 months. By July 26, 2013, the steel price index dropped to 100.48 points, down from 6.6 points at the beginning of the year. Iron and Steel industry association key statistics of eight varieties of steel prices at the beginning of the year have different degrees of decline, an average decline of 5.7%. By variety, the price of construction wire and spiral steel, which account for a large proportion of Chinese steel production, fell by 4.9% and 6.7% respectively, while the price of medium and thick plate and hot rolled coil fell by 5.7% and 9.7% respectively.

Rapid growth of steel exports. The imbalance of supply and demand in the domestic steel market stimulates enterprises to export. From January to June, the country exported 30.69 million tons of steel, up 12.6% year on year; China imported 6.83 million tons of steel, down 1.8 percent, and imported 320,000 tons of billets and ingot, up 50 percent. Converting billet into crude steel, the accumulated net export of 25.06 million tons, up 17.3% year on year, accounting for 6.4% of the crude steel output of our country. From the perspective of export price, the average export price of rod and wire from January to June was 624.3 USD/ton, down 18% year-on-year. Sheet metal is 835.2 USD/ton, down 2.8% year on year.