BEIJING - China's crude steel production rose 12.7% in April from March to its highest monthly level on record, official data showed on Wednesday, bolstered by firm demand and good profitability in steelmaking.

The world's top steelmaker churned out 85.03 million tonnes of crude steel last month, up from 80.33 million tonnes in March and 76.7 million tonnes at the same time last year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

Average daily output of the metal reached 2.83 million tonnes, according to Reuters calculations based on the official data.

For the first four months of the year, China produced a total of 314.96 million tonnes of steel, up 10.1% on the same period in 2018, the NBS data showed.

"Profitability at steel mills remains at a fairly good level, although high raw material prices have crimped margins (to some extent)," Zhuo Guiqiu, an analyst at Jinrui Futures, said, speaking before the data was issued.

The most-active iron ore contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange DCIOcv1 topped out at 720 yuan ($104.79) a tonne on April 9, buoyed by concerns over tight supply. It has since been hovering above 600 yuan.

Anti-pollution curbs on factories also will continue to exert some influence on future production levels.

The top steelmaking city of Tangshan tightened its anti-pollution restrictions throughout May, ordering mills to halt operations of blast furnaces and converters. Still, the utilisation rate at steel mills in Tangshan picked up by 3.26 percentage points last week, rising to 74.53% despite the curbs.

China last week said it would impose further strict environmental standards in key pollution-control areas, including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze River Delta.

(Reporting by Muyu Xu and Shivani Singh; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell) ((muyu.xu@thomsonreuters.com; +86 010 66271298;))