China's steel exports swelled to 7.21 million tonnes in July, up 21.38 percent year on year. The amount was 1.99 million tonnes more than June, China Securities News reported on Tuesday, quoting China Customs statistics.

Experts attributed the surge to the deferred export of June's alloy steel.

Tianjin Port started to check alloy steel exports in June. "At least 700,000 to 800,000 tonnes of alloy steel were kept within the harbor till July because of the half-month checking time," said umetal.com analyst Zhang Ping.

"The 5 percent tax rebate on alloy steel was also part of the reason for the export surge."

Spurred by rising prices on the international market, the country's steel exports have showed signs of rebounding since March. The upward trend urged Chinese Customs last month to suggest reinforcing supervision over steel exports to prevent it from getting out of control.

Customs statistics showed national steel exports stood at 34.15 million tonnes in the first seven months this year, down 14 percent over the same period in 2007.

July's net export, however, reached 5.77 million tonnes, representing a 45.7 percent month-on-month increase.

(Xinhua News Agency August 12, 2008)