Pakistan overtakes Vietnam, Saudi Arabia as China's largest HRC buyer in Jan-May

Source: Mysteel Jun 25, 2026 16:05

For several years, the dominant export destinations for China’s carbon steel hot-rolled coil (HRC) exports were countries in Southeast Asia and Middle East, but this changed during this year’s January-May period, with Pakistan emerging as the largest importer of Chinese coils during the period, new data from China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC) show. But Pakistan achieved its top ranking by default, due to the very mediocre performance by the Chinese mills and traders globally during the five months, Mysteel Global notes.

Over January-May, China shipped 6.13 million tonnes of HRC to all destinations worldwide, slumping by a huge 35% from the same period last year. Within the total, China shipped 663,517 tonnes to Vietnam, down by a striking 65% on year, while the export volume to Saudi Arabia totaled 633,451,

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