Steelstat Reports
How much pig iron is China really producing?
March 2023
It is well known that China is by far the world’s biggest steel producer. According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) domestic crude steel production reached 1,013Mt in 2022, accounting for more than 51% of the global total. For blast furnace pig iron NBS reported 864 Mt of production for the same year. Clearly with such huge tonnages, it follows that any discrepancies in the official data are likely to stand out. Indeed, they already do.
How much iron ore is China really producing?
April 2023
China produced 968 Mt of iron ore in 2022, according to official data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This headlines China as the world's largest iron ore producer. However, some rudimentary calculations based on China’s steel production and iron ore requirements at steel plants suggest that official ore production numbers are far higher than theoretical iron ore demand.