The China iron and steel association holds a press conference on the operation of the steel industry in the first quarter of 2019 on April 28.

According to the data released by cisa, in the first quarter of April 28, 2019, China produced 195 million tons of pig iron, an increase of 9.29% year-on-year, 231 million tons of crude steel, an increase of 9.92% year-on-year, and 269 million tons of steel, an increase of 10.82% year-on-year.Among them, member iron and steel enterprises produced 157 million tons of pig iron, with a year-on-year growth of 6.94%, 173 million tons of crude steel, with a year-on-year growth of 7.31%, and 161 million tons of steel, with a year-on-year growth of 5.99%.The output of pig iron, crude steel and steel of non-member enterprises increased by 20.34%, 18.58% and 18.96% respectively.The output growth rate of non-member enterprises is much higher than that of member enterprises.

Cisa believes that in the first quarter, China's economy maintained an overall stable, steady and progressive development trend, providing a good market environment for the development of the steel industry.The iron and steel industry has also presented a relatively stable operation situation, with output growth and export increase. However, due to the substantial increase in the price of imported raw materials such as iron ore, the iron and steel industry has also seen a significant decline in benefits.

In addition, China's steel exports increased in the first quarter, with 17.03 million tons of steel exported nationwide, up 12.6 percent year-on-year.Steel imports were 2.9 million tons, down 16.1 percent year-on-year.The country's net steel exports were 14.13 million tons, equivalent to about 14.72 million tons of crude steel net exports, an increase of 2.56 million tons.This is the first increase in steel exports after three years of decline.