FedEx inquiry

CHINESE authorities sent an official inquiry to FedEx Corp. over parcels that were delivered incorrectly, Xinhua reported Friday.

The report did not specify what parcels the authorities inquired about, but Xinhua previously reported that China will investigate whether FedEx damaged the legal rights and interests of its clients after Huawei Technologies said FedEx diverted parcels destined for the Chinese firms addresses in Asia to the United States.

Crude runs

THE country’s crude oil throughput in May rose from a year earlier but eased from a record reached in April, government data showed Friday, as refiners curbed output amid weakening fuel demand.

Crude throughput last month climbed 2.8 percent from a year earlier to 51.9 million tons, or 12.22 million barrels per day (bpd), data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed. That compared to an all-time high in April of 12.68 million bpd.

Steel output

THE country’s crude steel output hit a record high in May, official data showed Friday, even as a jump in prices of raw materials, particularly iron ore, cut into mills’ profit margins.

The world’s top steel maker produced 89.09 million tons of crude steel last month, up from 85.03 million tons in April and 81.13 million tons in May a year ago, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. Average daily output of the industrial metal reached 2.87 million tons, according to media calculations based on the official data, up from a record 2.83 million tons in April. China’s steel output has been running at high levels for the past year.