China's crude steel import situation

From 2017 to 2018, both the import and export volume of crude steel in China were relatively small. With the continuous decline in international crude steel prices and the continuous increase in global crude steel production, China's crude steel imports have grown rapidly since 2019, reaching 28.889 million tons by 2021. In 2022, China's crude steel imports will decline to 17.608 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 39.05%, due to the repeated global COVID-19 epidemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict and other factors.
On April 28, 2021, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation announced that starting from May 1, 2021, some export tax refunds for steel products will be cancelled, involving a total of 146 commodity codes; The adjustment of import tariffs on steel products involves 20 tariff lines, including pig iron and reduced iron, steel billets and ingots, recycled steel raw materials, and ferrochrome. The tax rates are uniformly adjusted from 1% and 2% to zero tariffs, respectively.