China estimates improvement in iron and steel sector

China estimates improvement in iron and steel sector

As SteelOrbis mentioned last month, an official news agency in China made a survey with 40 participants, consisting of China's largest steel companies, regarding their capacity expansion plans between 2003 and 2005. According to further information, China is expected to increase its crude steel production capacity to 270 million tons by the end of 2005 and 330 million tons by 2010. China is planning to increase pig iron capacity to 177 million tons, crude steel and rolled steel capacity to 184 million tons by 2005, or up 42%, 29% and 34% respectively compared to 2002. China's steel companies will improve their capacity by an average of about 24% in the next three years. The steel companies which are ranked no. 11 to no. 20, estimate a 68% increase in their production capacity. Furthermore, the ten plants ranked no. 21 to no. 30 anticipate to improve their capacity by 43% and the last ten plants foresee a 75% increase. In addition, China's major steel companies located in inland districts, are moving their new facilities to coastal districts. The agency stated that, private capital and investments from overseas, including those from Japan, Korea and Germany, are participated in many of the expansion plans. Sector analysts estimate a growing demand for steel products due to rapid growth in China's economy. Furthermore, Chinese steel products prices are started to increase in the latter half of 2002 until March 2003 due to growing market demand.