The exports during the month totaled 5.886 million tons, down significantly by 15.2% over the previous month. When compared with the corresponding month last year, the July ’18 steel exports were down by 15.4%. This is the first time during the past four months that the steel exports have fallen below the 6 million tons threshold, Customs data said.

According to sources, the sharp decline in export volume is mainly on account of increased domestic demand for steel products within the country. It must be noted that the country’s crude steel production had peaked at 80.20 million tons during June. The average daily output of crude steel by key steel enterprises has increased marginally by 1.56% during early-August too. The domestic steel market trends turned positive towards the second half of the month. The domestic steel prices remained higher when compared with export price. The Chinese steel mills mainly catered to the domestic market demand.