China's steel exports exceeded expectations

Since this year, despite the complex and severe international environment, China's steel exports have exceeded expectations, including both direct and indirect steel exports. According to the statistics of the General Administration of Customs, from January to October 2022, China exported 56.358 million tons of steel, a year-on-year decrease of 1.8%. Among them, 5.184 million tons of steel were exported in October, up 15.3% year on year. Since the second quarter, due to various factors, China's steel exports have shown a substantial growth. Among them, the export of steel increased by 47.2% year-on-year in May, 17% in June, 17.9% in July, 21.8% in August, 1.3% in September and 15.3% in October. If this trend is maintained, the annual steel export volume is likely to reverse the decline.

On the other hand, indirect steel exports, as the main channel for steel exports, are more robust. According to customs statistics, in the first 10 months of 2022, China's exports of mechanical and electrical products increased 9.6% year on year, accounting for 57% of the total export value of goods, including automobile exports, which increased by 72%. In addition, the export volume of construction machinery such as excavators and bulldozers also increased significantly.

The above fields are the most important fields of steel demand at present. Their rapid growth and continuous improvement of growth level show the strong toughness of China's steel demand since this year.