Speaking at the "New Horizons in Steel Markets" 10th Annual Conference organized by SteelOrbis in Istanbul on November 19, Miaomiao Bai from the
China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) said that the Chinese economy has shifted from its previous high-speed growth to medium-high speed growth, with the annual GDP growth rate slowing down to 6-8 percent from about 10 percent. Ms. Bai indicated that these are the basic characteristics of
China's "new normal". She added that the growth pattern has switched from quantity expansion to quality improvement, in other words
China's economy is moving from the previous quantity-based growth to quality-based growth.
In the first nine months of 2015,
China's crude steel production amounted to 608.94 million mt, falling by 2.1 year on year, with the CISA official pointing out that
China's annual crude steel production may have peaked in 2014 at 823 million mt. During the January-September period of the current year,
China's finished steel imports amounted to 9.73 million mt, down 11.6 percent year on year. The country's finished steel exports stood at 11.25 million mt in September, while rising by 27.2 percent year on year in the first nine months to 83.11 million mt. She predicted that Chinese exports will exceed 100 million mt for the whole of the current year. However, the exports may decrease in line with more and more trade cases and due to the fall in export prices.
According to Ms. Bai's presentation, in the first nine months of 2015 apparent crude steel consumption decreased by 5.82 percent to 532.5 million mt, while in September the figure was 55.45 million mt, down 8.65 percent, both year on year. With consumption decreasing significantly, the CISA official suggested that steel demand will not see a sharp increase in the future.