The China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) will accelerate the development of domestic iron ore resources in cooperation with China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and other relevant government departments, aiming to organize the steel industry to implement an iron ore resource development plan, as stated by Luo Tiejun, CISA vice president.
In recent years, though China’s apparent consumption of crude steel has continued to decrease, it has remained above 900 million mt. As for the coming period, China’s demand for steel will remain high. In particular, 27 percent of the planned new steelmaking capacity will be based on electric furnaces, totaling 110 million mt. Moreover, share of China’s electric furnace-based steel production will reach 30 percent in 2035. Blast furnace and converter-based long-process production will still be the mainstream production process and so demand for iron ore will remain at relatively high levels.