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Steel Exports Report: China
Background
China was the world’s largest steel exporter in 2019. In 2019, China exported 62.0 million metric tons of steel, a 7.3 percent decrease from 66.9 million metric tons in 2018. China’s exports represented about 15 percent of all steel exported globally in 2019. The volume of China’s 2019 steel exports was almost double that of the world’s second-largest exporter, Japan. In value terms, steel represented about 2 percent of the total amount of goods China exported in 2019.
China exports steel to more than 200 countries and territories. The 10 countries highlighted in the map below represent the top markets for China’s exports of steel, receiving more than 1.4 million metric tons each and accounting for over 50 percent of China’s 2019 steel exports.
Throughout the last decade, China has maintained a trade surplus in steel products. After a brief decline in exports in 2009, due to the global recession, China’s exports increased every year through 2015. Since 2016, Chinese exports have trended down, but are still up 169.7 percent for the period from 2009 to 2019. Imports decreased by 30 percent over the same period. The trade surplus has decreased 11 percent from 52.7 million metric tons in 2018 to 46.7 million metric tons in 2019.
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