Speaking at the SteelOrbis 2017 Fall Conference & 77th IREPAS Meeting held in Athens on September 24-26, Li Xinchuang, vice chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), said that in China downstream steel consuming industries such as building, automobile, machinery, shipbuilding, white goods, etc., will keep growing in the second half of 2017, and so overall Chinese steel consumption will increase slightly. He added that, considering steel demand in the Chinese market, the significant rise in domestic steel prices as well as the rapid development of automobile and high-end equipment manufacturing, China’s steel imports are foreseen to rise slightly in 2017.
Regarding Chinese export predictions, Mr. Li indicated that, as production cuts in the second half of 2017 resulted in a shortage of steel supply to the domestic market, Chinese steel exports will decrease in 2017, while the percentage of exports of high-end products will increase. It is predicted that in 2018 China’s steel imports will total about 13 million metric tons and its steel exports will amount to 80 million metric tons.
According to the CISA official, considering rapid economic growth and the effectiveness of supply-side structural reforms in the first half of 2017, Chinese electrode steel production and consumption in 2017 are foreseen to total 3.2 million mt. Based on market demand at home and abroad in the first half of the current year, Chinese electrode exports for the full year are predicted to remain at a low level.
Mr. Li pointed out that the international market still shows weak demand due to the slow recovery of the world economy. He added that he expects trade protectionism to continue to constrain international steel trade and a certain amount of antidumping and trade investigation cases to be launched by European countries and the US.