At the Spring Report Conference on China's Industrial Economy in 2010 held lately in Beijing, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) warned of the country's high rate of dependence on iron ore imports - a rate which already reached nearly 70 percent in 2009.
MIIT official Xin Guobin stated that China has in recent years become increasingly dependent on iron ore imports, with the rate of almost 70 percent in 2009 being 13 percentage points higher than in 2008 and with China's iron ore import volume accounting for 75 percent of the global iron ore trade volume.
Meanwhile, excess capacity remains the main problem in the Chinese steel industry. China produced over 700 million mt of crude steel in 2009, with apparent consumption for the year at 565 million mt and real consumption at less than 530 million. However, the industy still posted a 20 percent growth in fixed asset investment in 2009, with blind capacity expansion continuing to be a serious problem.