China produced a record amount of steel in August, data showed on Thursday, as mills in the world’s top producer boosted production to take advantage of rising prices despite rigorous environmental inspections across the country.
Mills in the world’s largest steelmaker churned out 74.59 million tonnes of the construction material in August, up 8.7 percent on a year earlier and just beating July’s previous monthly record of 74.02 million tonnes.
In the first eight months of the year, steel output totalled 566.41 million tonnes, up 5.6 percent from the same period in 2016, the National Statistics Bureau (NBS) data showed.
Chinese steel mills have been running at full tilt, with some even postponing proposed maintenance schedules to ramp up output in an effort to cash in on strong margins.
