The manufacturing production index of steel consumption weighted produced by Platts stood at 109 in May, down 15 points from April and 32 points from March. It was still 22 points higher than the same period of 2019, but has shown deceleration from the growth of 30 points seen for both April and March.
As China was under a nationwide lockdown for much of the first quarter of 2020, production index in 2019 is believed to provide a better comparison.
The index is based on production data of 17 steel-related manufactured goods from NBS, which are categorized into seven sectors and weighted according to their shares of steel consumption. The monthly production average in 2018 is used as the baseline of 100.
In May, production sub-indexes in sectors of machinery, automobile, shipbuilding and home appliances all saw month-on-month declines, although most of them were still higher than the same period of 2019.
Power-generation facilities and railway transport were the only two sectors that witnessed month-on-month growth in May. The power-generation sector was also 27 points higher than May 2019, but railway transport sector was 5 points lower than May 2019.
The production sub-index in container manufacturing sector was almost unchanged from April, but more than doubled from the level seen in May 2019.
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