China imported 3.57mn t of coking coal last month, down by 4pc from 3.72mn t in November.

The country produced 30.14mn t of crude stainless steel in 2020, up by 2.51pc from 2019.

China also added a net 1.2GW of nuclear capacity to 49.9GW, 12.1GW of hydro to 370.2GW and 55.6GW of thermal capacity to 1,245GW.

China's steel sector registered output expansion last year, industrial data showed.

The output of steel reached 4.82 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 57.4%.

U.S. steel imports increase by 8.9% in December 2020

China's raw coal output expanded by 0.9 percent year on year in 2020.

Production output for the quarter ended 31 December 2020 of 33,866 tonnes of ferrosilicon (“FeSi”).