BEIJING- China’s annual crude steel production rose to over 1 billion tons for the first time in 2020, setting a record for a fourth year as steelmakers went into overdrive after the country reopened after lockdowns to control the spread of COVID-19.
The world’s top steel producer churned out 1.05 billion tons of crude steel last year, up 5.2 percent from 2019 to increase for a fifth year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday.
Steel consumption had plunged in early 2020, when the world’s second-largest economy had to lock down cities and suspend transportation to prevent coronavirus infections.
Demand picked up rapidly from the second quarter, however, as Beijing rolled out stimulus measures to spur infrastructure projects, with manufacturing taking up the baton when construction activities slowed during the off-peak season.
