Speaking at the 4th Global Coking Coal Resource & Market Summit 2014 held in Taiyuan, Wang Yingsheng, director of market research at the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), stated that in the current year China's steel consumption will continue to increase, but at a slower rate compared to previous years. China's steel usage will rise by 30 million mt year on year in 2014, he added.
Mr. Wang also predicted that, if China's steel consumption rises by 30 million mt and if its steel exports increase by over 60 million mt in the current year, then the country's steel production for the year will exceed 800 million mt.
Looking at downstream sectors, the CISA official forecast that in 2014 China's real estate development investment growth will be in the range of 15-17 percent, new construction starts will increase by 6-8 percent, automobile sales volumes will increase by more than 10 percent, while the sales revenues of the domestic home appliance industry are expected to increase by 10 percent, all year on year.