China’s Steel Exports Surge 25%, Reshaping Dry Bulk Shipping Landscape
Publish Time: 2025-09-30 Origin: Site
1. Global Steel Exports: Strong Growth Momentum Continues (2024-2025)
Since the start of 2025, global steel exports have maintained robust growth, with a cumulative increase exceeding 25%. Banchero Costa, a prominent shipbroking firm, emphasized in its latest weekly report that steel is a core commodity in the dry bulk market, accounting for nearly 4% of the world’s total seaborne dry bulk trade.
AXS Marine’s ship-tracking data shows that in 2024, steel exports transported by bulk carriers rose 11.6% year-on-year to a record high of 215.8 million tons. This growth persisted into 2025: in the first eight months, global steel trade volume increased a further 10.4% year-on-year to 155.4 million tons, outpacing the 140.8 million tons in the same period of 2024.
2. Export Ranking: China Leads as World’s Top Steel Exporter
China retains its status as the world’s largest steel exporter. In the first eight months of 2025, China’s steel exports reached 50.9 million tons, a sharp 25.1% year-on-year increase, and accounted for 32.7% of global total steel exports. Tianjin Port and Shanghai Port serve as the main loading hubs. Compared with the 28.2 million tons exported in the same period of 2022, China’s steel export volume has nearly doubled.
Other major exporters include:
Japan (2nd): 18.2 million tons
South Korea (3rd): 15.9 million tons
EU (4th): 13.3 million tons
Russia (5th): 12.7 million tons
3. Import Dynamics: EU Remains Top Market Despite Decline
The EU continues to be the world’s largest steel import market. In the first eight months of 2025, its steel imports totaled 22.8 million tons (14.6% of global steel imports), but dropped 5.1% year-on-year.
The U.S. holds the second spot among importers, with imports inching up 1.2% to 14.6 million tons. Turkey (7.8 million tons) and Vietnam (7 million tons) rank third and fourth, respectively.
4. Logistics Features of China’s Steel Exports
China’s steel export logistics exhibit clear characteristics:
Ship Type Allocation: Supramax bulk carriers handle 63.2% of shipments, Handysize bulk carriers account for 18.1%, and small vessels (deadweight <20,000 DWT) make up approximately 10.1%.
Regional Flow: Most of China’s steel is shipped to Asian and Middle Eastern markets. South Korea, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Vietnam are the top three destination countries, each receiving over 3 million tons of Chinese steel exports.
5. Impact on Global Dry Bulk Shipping
Industry insiders note that the sustained growth of China’s steel exports and the tight integration of Asian regional trade are profoundly reshaping the route layout and capacity allocation of the global dry bulk shipping market. The ongoing improvement in loading/unloading efficiency and ship type adaptability at major ports provides strong support for this trend.