According to Chinese customs, total steel exports in March reached 6.76 million tonnes. The figure for the first quarter of this year was 17.3 million tonnes. If the daily rate of steel exports, during the first quarter of 2014, continues for the whole of the year the total will be close to 70 million tonnes – an all-time high tonnage. This would represent 8.3 percent of all the rolled steel output in the country. Such a proportion has not been reported since 2007.

To put this figure into context, only three other countries - Japan, United States and India - have steel industries which, currently, produce more finished steel products than the export sales from the Chinese steel sector.

However, the situation is not all bad. Low-cost Chinese exports are often seen as detrimental to the manufacturers in the industrialised nations of the world. However, the same exports have been a major factor in the rapid development of many newly emerging Asian countries.

Competitively priced flat steel products from China have enabled many new industries to be set up – particularly in South East Asia. These are providing employment in manufacturing and assembling components which are subsequently supplied to both western and eastern corporations.