China’s iron ore imports and domestic steel prices have continued to fall, after the end of the Dragon Boat Festival on June 10, due to the pessimistic outlook for domestic steel demand.

Although China’s action plan for steel industry energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction, issued on June 7, calls for keeping the country’s crude steel output under control in 2024, it has nevertheless failed to improve market sentiment.

This is mainly because weakness has persisted in both consumption and investment sectors in China, which makes the market believe steel end-user demand is likely to fall faster than steel output.