Posted on 15 Jul 2021
For the second half of 2021, China’s steel consumption will continue to grow on year though the pace may slow down from the first half, Wang Yingsheng, deputy secretary general of the China Iron and Steel Association, shared on July 13 at SGX’s Singapore International Ferrous Week, a three-day virtual event.
Steel demand from both the construction projects and manufacturers in China will soften in the second half, he elaborated, explaining, “firstly, the hot and rainy weather at present in China will affect the operations of construction industry and decrease steel demand from this sector as a result.”
Besides, demand for manufactured products from overseas will recede gradually as the COVID-19 has been gradually under the control in many overseas economies, and the mismatch in supply and demand for such goods will be corrected, and “the Chinese manufacturing enterprises may see their new export orders decline, and this will lead to a dip in steel consumption by then,” Wang added.
Therefore, “the on-year growth in China’s steel consumption in the second half will be lower than that in the first half year with softening demand, as well as higher base in H2 of 2020… and both steel consumption and production in H2 may be lower than that in the first half, though in general, both will still hover at relatively high levels,” he summarized, without sharing any specific numbers.
In the near term, China will encourage more primary steel imports while discipline steel exports to satisfy domestic steel demand, and in the longer term, China will rein in its steel capacity and steel output with the growing consciousness of environmental protection, and nurture high-quality development in the steel industry with all the producers strive to achieve decarbonization and ultra-low emissions in steelmaking.
In the first half of 2021, China’s steel industry had been with rather healthy fundamentals, and those key steel-consuming industries such as property market and manufacturing and steel exports had posted positive results over January-May, Wang highlighted, and the daily steel output nationwide averaged 3.13 million tonnes/day over January-May, or up 14.7% on year, according to him.
Source:Mysteel Global
