China's daily crude steel output fell 2.2 percent to 1.905 million tonnes in the last 11 days of August from the preceding 10 days, industry consultancy www.cnchemicals.com said
on Thursday, citing data from the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA).Several Chinese steel mills have scheduled maintenance over the summer to take advantage of the seasonal demand weakness during the period. Analysts expect steel output in the world's top steel-producing country to remain resilient over next two months. "The slight production loss resulted from an overhaul in some major steel flat products mills, while the overall operation rates have been stably high and steel output may edge up in September on improving demand," said Hu Yanping, Custeel analyst in Beijing.CISA expected the country's steel production growth to slow in the second half of this year, as demand for flat steel products from major consumers such as shipbuilding and auto makers will see little improvement. As a result, the blistering output growth seen in H1 may not be repeated. Chinese steel mills have sought to cash in on strong construction activity including for the country's social housing programme, bringing total crude steel output in the world's top steel producing country to 410 million tonnes for the first seven months of the year. China produced a daily average of 1.935 million tonnes of crude steel in August, CISA data showed, compared with 1.913 million tonnes reported by the National Bureau of Statistics.The following table shows changes in daily output since the beginning of the year.