Global Steel Production Rises On China Output
- As Reuters reported, global steel production rose 0.6 percent in August, driven by an 8.4 percent increase in output from China. Production was down 24.4 percent in the United States, 20.6 percent in Japan, and 13.4 percent in Germany, meanwhile and Capital Economics Assistant Commodities Economist warned, “[P]roduction outside China could even fall further in the coming months as the recent re-introduction of virus-related quarantine measures in Europe, India and elsewhere could lead to a renewed slump in the demand for steel.”
- According to FastmarketsAMM (subscription required), China’s imports of unwrought aluminum and aluminum products rose 9.8 percent from July 2020 to August 2020 and nearly 724 percent from August 2019 to August 2020. For the first eight months of 2020 (January to August), imports were up almost 347 percent over the same period in 2019.