China's daily crude steel output hits 3-yr low

Workers were performing converter smelting operations in the steel plate plant of Benxi Iron and Steel Co., Ltd, northeast China's Liaoning Province on August 18.

China's average daily output of crude steel recorded a three-year low in September, according to the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) on Oct. 25.

The average daily output in September fell 21.2 percent year on year to 2.46 million tonnes, CISA vice chairperson Qu Xiuli said at a press conference.

She noted the drop in output is a must, as the country continued to control the production and energy cost of the steel industry.

A cut in output, however, did not affect the profits of China's major steel mills. In the first nine months of this year, profits of the country's major iron and steel companies surged 123 percent year on year.

Qu urged more efforts to build up the industrial and supply chains to enhance the coordinated development of upstream and downstream companies.

As part of the green shift by its energy-consuming steel industry, China has vowed to shrink its crude steel output in 2021 from a year earlier.