Very possible, this also means that a lot of the narrative in the west regarding slump of demand in China might not be an indication of Chinese economy slowing down, but rather the fact that China is not sourcing stuff from the west anymore.

It's likely, specially as from what I hear China was able to sell steel in Brazil cheaper than the local production too, so something likely changed/improved in China recently. It could be, at least in part, due to less internal demand, but cutting off the middlemen might have helped too.