BEIJING (Scrap Register): China’s steel mills ramped up production 7.7% in April from the previous month, boosted by robust domestic demand.

Total crude steel output last month was 85.03 million tonnes, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed, up from 78.98 million tonnes in March, and also 0.2% higher than in April 2019.

In the first four months of the year, the world’s top steel producing country churned out 319.46 million tonnes of the metal, up 1.3% from the same period last year, the NBS data showed.