China’s steel exports remained strong in July, as reported, but unlike previous months Southeast Asia was not the core source of export growth, detailed customs data show. Stronger than expected demand from South Korea, and a large increase in volumes to Africa helped to make up for a slowdown in exports to Vietnam, Kallanish notes.

South Korea unsurprisingly remained the largest single destination for Chinese steel in July, but the pace of growth was more surprising. Volumes were up 26.9% year-on-year in July to 1.42 million tonnes, while over January-July volumes rose by 13.49% to 8.55mt.

A recovery in growth to Sub-Saharan Africa meanwhile helped to pep up exports to the continent as a whole. China’s exports to Africa were up 38.06% in July to 1.13mt, while exports over January-July were up 12.31% to 5.7mt.

Southeast Asia remained the largest region by volume but saw slower growth in July of just 5.11% to 3.38mt, compared with 23.83% growth over January-July to 24.07mt. Some key growth markets appeared to be struggling to maintain y-o-y rates. Vietnam saw July volumes dip -4.81% y-o-y to around 986,000t, brining January-July up 34.99% to 7.35mt.

Indonesia remained a strong contributor to growth, with July volumes up 70.29% y-o-y to around 447,000t, and January-July up 43.81% to 3.37mt. On a year-to-date basis Myanmar is the only significant consuming economy in Southeast Asia to record a decline in volumes, although Malaysia has seen effectively zero growth.

Exports to the EU28 are now down around -5.55% y-t-d to 3.94mt, while exports to Nafta are down -54.25% to 1.38mt on the same basis.