China’s steel sector is not as gloomy as it appears

By Clyde Russell – Reuters

China’s steel output fell in November from October, seemingly another sign of the struggles in the world’s biggest producer of the key metal for construction and manufacturing.

But while November production did drop 4.3% from October, the detail is far more nuanced and the big picture shows China’s steel sector is largely steady, as it has been for the past five years.

Crude steel output in the world’s largest producer was 78.4 million metric tons in November, down from 81.88 million in October, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Monday.