China's steel industry has kept fast growth alongside the rising steel prices, according to a report of the National Development & Reform Commission (NDRC).

     Statistics show that profit in the first five months reached 142.6 billion yuan, up 50.8 percent year on year, with the growth rate up 12.2 percentage points over January-February.

     China produced 216.11 million tons of steel in the first five months, up 9.4 percent, or 18.63 million tons, over the same last year period, with the growth rate down 10.5 percentage points.

     The export of steel had dropped greatly affected by the export tax adjustment and strengthening yuan.

     Domestic steel price had gone up rapidly in the first half. The steel price index reached 156.86 point by the end of May, up 31.49 points over the beginning of the year as a result of fast growth of the national economy and fixed-assets investment, overall growth of raw materials' prices as well as fast increase of the international steel price.

     By the end of May, the international steel price index reached 268 points, up 55.5 percent over the same last year period.

     The iron and steel industry spent investment totaling 96.55 billion yuan, up 22.4 percent year on year.

     NDRC said that the mergers and reorganizations of iron and steel industry had greatly increased and tended to develop in coastal regions this year.

     However, the mergers and reorganizations in this sector were mostly down within the same province, so it was very hard to realize the optimizing of the resource deployment across the country.