Posted on 14 Apr 2008
China’s steel export fail amid value increase
China's
exports of iron and steel products fell 19.3 per cent from a year ago in the
first quarter of 2008, while the value of exports grew 7.6 per cent, said an
official with China Customs at a recent forum in Shanghai.
Huang Guohua, director of the statistics analysis department
of China Customs, told the forum that China had succeeded in restraining
overheated steel export growth after it hit a record high in April 2007.
Over the whole year, it lowered steel export growth by 63.7
percentage points.
However, China
saw the export value grow, while the volume kept dropping in the first quarter
of 2008, due to the accelerated growth in steel export price index, which was
135 in March 2008, up 35 per cent year on year.
In fact, China's
export price for steel products began to go up in 2007, when the average price
reached $US705, up 15 per cent year-on-year. As the two most important
products, the average export price of sheet and rod materials, respectively, rose
20.2 per cent and 18.7 per cent year on year.
Huang predicted that China's steel exports would
decrease in 2008.
An official with China Iron and Steel Association said that
the export volume of steel products would reach around 48 million tons this year,
and that of steel billets would be 1.5 million tons.
China
would export 52.5 million tons of crude steel in 2008, down 20 million tons or
27 per cent year-on-year.
