Data released today shows China’s industrial production in May increased on a year-on-year basis by 0.7%.  This is a significant improvement from the 2.9% year-on-year contraction seen in April.  

Also of note is that crude steel output totaled 96.6 MMT.  This marks the highest steel output seen in a year but is down year-on-year by 3.5%.  As we have continued to stress, China’s steel output remains much improved from just a few months ago, and in mid-May it started to rise on a year-on-year basis again.