Despite strong exports, weaker Chinese domestic steel demand saw crude steel production in April to fall 7.2% year on year to 85.94 million mt, National Bureau of Statistics data showed. Total steel production in the first four months fell 3% year on year to 343.67 million mt.

As a result, China’s apparent domestic steel consumption in April fell 3.8% on the year to 81.31 million mt, according to Commodity Insights’ calculations, buy rose 4.3% from March.

Apparent domestic steel consumption in the first four months fell 5.4% on the year to 301.3 million mt.

Chinese steel prices increased in April, mainly on expectations of the government introducing further fiscal and monetary stimulus in May to support the infrastructure and property sectors, sources said.

However, an accelerated local government bond sale in May was unlikely to take effect in the infrastructure until at least later this year, sources said.