China's steel butterfly flaps its wings again

• Autores: Bruce McMichael
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 552, 2013
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Steel products and scrap now make up close to 300m tonnes of trade per annum and are an important source of employment for smaller assets of the dry bulk fleet. Continued economic growth and rising steel demand are expected to drive demand for both steel products and scrap steel. Maritime trade analysts forecast a 6.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) up to 2016 for seaborne trade of ferrous material, and have increased from the 5.9% CAGR seen since 2009. This growth will equate to trade of 228m tonnes of steel products by 2016, while scrap will contribute 130m tonnes to global business.

    Chinese steel mills produced 389m tonnes of crude steel, or half of the world's output, in the first half of 2013. In comparison, Chinese steel mills represented 20-25% of the world's crude steel production just 10 years ago.

    The intensity of steel usage is tightly linked to a country's economic development and, as China's economy boomed during the past decade, its appetite for steel followed suit. The country's steel consumption grew to about 640m tonnes last year from 211m tonnes in 2002, while local production increased to 708m tonnes from 180m tonnes during the period. The rapid expansion of Chinese steel production has turned the country from a large importer at the turn of the century, into the world's largest exporter.