Speaking at the SteelOrbis 2015 Fall Conference & 73rd IREPAS Meeting held in Rome on October 5, Li Xinchuang, vice secretary general of China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) said that antidumping cases initiated against Chinese exports are not going to stop the exports since customer demand beats the negative effects of the cases. In the January-August period this year, China exported 71.87 million mt of steel products, up 26.5 percent compared to the same period of 2014. He also pointed out that Chinese steel exports to the US was 3.4 million mt in 2014, up 3.6 percent year on year, while total steel imports of the US stood at above 40 million mt.
According to the CISA official, during the first eight months of the current year, global crude steel production is about 1.07 billion mt down 2.3 percent, with China accounting for 543 million mt, down two percent, both year on year.
Mr. Li Xinchuang indicated that steel production and consumption will step into plateau during Thirteen Five Year period adding that the higher requirement of steel users in terms of quality and service will be also a challenge. He went onto say that construction and machinery industries are the biggest two steel users. Construction industry accounted for about 55 percent, machinery accounted for nearly 20 percent. From a long-term view, steel consumption of construction industry will decrease, while consumption of machinery and automobile industries will increase.