BEIJING, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's steel output saw a drop in August and prices of steel products have continued to fall, data from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) showed Thursday.

Crude steel production shed 1.7 percent year on year in August, contrasting with the 13.8-percent growth recorded during the same period last year, the NDRC said in an online report.

In August, the composite price index for China's domestic steel products averaged at 104.39 points, pulling back 7.64 points from the previous month and down 30.78 points from a year earlier, according to the NDRC.

In the first eight months, China produced 481.57 million tonnes of crude steel, up 2.3 percent year-on-year. The growth represented a retreat of 8.3 percentage points from the growth seen a year earlier.

Profits of the steel and iron industry dropped 48.3 percent year on year to 79.3 billion yuan (12.5 billion U.S. dollars) during the January-July period, the NDRC said. Enditem

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