China’s growing urbanization means opportunities for steel

China’s growing urbanization means opportunities for steel

Liu Zhifeng, vice minister of China’s Ministry of Construction, pointed out during a November 9th meeting that both the number and scale of Chinese cities is on the rise. From 1978 to 2004, the urbanization rate increased to 41.8 percent from 17.9 percent. The urban population increased to 540 million from 170 million, and the current average annual growth rate is three times that of three decades ago. The total number of cities has risen to 661 from 193. The city scale is also expanding. From 1978 to 2003, the number of cities with population greater than one million increased to 49 from 13; cities with population of 500’000 to one-million increased to 78 from 27; cities with population of 200’000 to 500’000 increased to 213 from 59; and cities with population fewer than 200’000 increased to 320 from 115. The city infrastructure and social and cultural construction improved noticeably. People’s living standards improved, and China’s cities underwent great changes. By the end of 2004, the nationwide utility rate of water reached 88.8 percent and gas reached 81.6 percent. The processing rate of polluted water was 45.7 percent and trash was 52.1 percent. Green space per capita was 7.4 square meters, and per capita residential living area was 24.9 square meters. Though China has made remarkable progress, the country still has a ways to go before it becomes truly urbanized. If the country wants to reach an urbanization rate of 80 percent, then about 500 million people need to move form rural areas to cities. To accommodate such a transfer, a large number of houses, public facilities and commercial facilities would need to be built. This of course entails huge quantities of steel products, which means China’s iron and steel industry has plenty of room for expansion. SteelOrbis Shanghai