According to the data compiled by China's customs, China's steel product exports totaled 5.23 million t in May of 2012, increasing by 0.56 million tons compared to April and by 9.87% year over year. At the same time, China's overall steel product exports came to 22.04 million t in January-May of 2012, up 10.1% year on year.
In May of 2012, China had imported 1.32 million t of the steel products, rising by 190 thousand tons from previous month and by 3.1% compared to the same period of prior year. On the other hand, from January to May of this year, Chinese overall steel product imports amounted to 5.85 million t, down 14.4% year over year.
During the given month, Chinese billet imports had jumped by 10 thousand tons from April to 30 thousand tons and the year-to-date billet imports had amounted to 0.16 million tons, still down 35.2% compared to the same period of last year.
At the same time, Chinese coke exports came to 140 thousand t in May and the year-to-date coke exports stood at 0.43 million t, down 79.8% year over year.
In May of 2012, China's iron ore imports had registered a month-on-month increase of 6.15 million t and reached 63.84 million t, up 19.8% from prior year. Meanwhile, the year-to-date iron ore imports had aggregated to 308.22 million t, up 9% from the corresponding period of last year.