Efforts to curb steel exports paid off, with net foreign sales of crude steel down 37 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) said on Tuesday.

Rolled steel exports stood at 11.38 million tonnes, down 19.47 percent, and billet exports totaled 90,000 tonnes, down 94.95 percent. As for imports, rolled steel totaled 4.17 million tonnes, down 2.49 percent, and billets stood at 49,700 tonnes, down 37.85 percent, CISA said.

Net crude steel exports in the first quarter reached 7.71 million tonnes, down 36.72 percent.

The average export price was $870.77 per tonne, up 33.33 percent year-on-year, it said.

China produced 140.93 million tonnes of rolled steel in the first quarter, up 12.16 percent.

Crude steel output rose 8.56 percent to 124.94 million tonnes. The growth rate was 13.78 percentage points less than the year-earlier level.

Domestic steel took a market share of 96.89 percent in China in the first quarter, up 0.58 percentage point year-on-year.

(Xinhua? News Agency April 30, 2008)