China Materials: April IP Data: Production Declines for Majority

Research evidence excerpt

China Materials: April IP Data: Production Declines for Majority

Update

May 18, 2026 06:22 AM GMT

Morgan Stanley Asia Limited+MChina Materials | Asia Pacific Rachel L Zhang

Equity Analyst

April IP Data: Production Rachel.Zhang@morganstanley.comHannah Yang, CFA +852 2239-1520

Hannah.Yang1@morganstanley.com +852 2239-7079

Declines for Majority Chris Jiang

Chris.Jiang@morganstanley.com +852 3963-1593

YoY production declined for crude steel, cement, coal and glass, Cynthia Tang

but grew for aluminum. ResearchCynthia.Tang@morganstanley.comAssociate +852 3963-4360

Property – New starts down 27.1% YoY in April (vs. -17.1% YoY in March). GFA Greater China Materials

sold fell 10.3% YoY (vs. -8% YoY in March) and property completions were down Asia Pacific

Industry View Attractive

19% YoY (vs. -19.3% YoY in March), all based on restated data for 2025. While China Coal

secondary real-time home sales in select high-tier cities beat market expectations in Asia Pacific

Industry View Cautious

March-April, our China property team noted a rapid deceleration so far in May. Also,

Greater China Cement

they note further divergence among cities in terms of secondary listing volume and Asia Pacific

listing prices, with select Tier 2 and low-tier cities continuing to worsen. Together Industry View In-Line

with still-fragile resident sentiment and diminishing effects of recent city-level

policies, the team remains prudent about the durability of the sales rebound,

although the drops may remain narrow in coming months on favorable bases.

FAI was down 9.4% YoY in April 26 (vs. +1.6% YoY in March). Highway FAI slipped

18.1% YoY in April.

Crude steel output was -2.8% YoY in April (vs. -6.3% YoY in March ). 4M26

production was down 4.1% YoY. We estimate domestic steel apparent consumption