On Oct. 25 and 26, the Fifth China International Iron and Steel Raw Material Seminar 2005 was held in Qingdao. The seminar was hosted by China Iron and Steel Association, undertaken by Metallurgical Industry Branch of CCPIT and sponsored by Sinosteel Corporation. Baosteel, Anshan Steel Group and Panzhihua Steel Group in China, Arcelor Group, Nippon Steel Corporation from Japan, POSCO from Korea and US Steel all went to Qingdao. The Big Three—CVRD in Brazil, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton in Australia also showed their appearances. President Huang Tianwen led a delegation attending the seminar and presented an address titled Current Situation and Prospect of China’s Iron Ore Market (attached).During the seminar, president Huang Tianwen also held friendly discussions on consolidating long-term cooperation with leaders from Baosteel, Nobel Resources and Jiangsu Yonggang Group.
Current Situation and Prospect of China’s Iron Ore Market
Speech Delivered at the Fifth China International
Iron and Steel Raw Material Seminar
Huang Tianwen
President of Sinosteel Corporation
Qingdao, October 26th, 2005 Guests, Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning! I am very happy to be able to attend “The Fifth China International Iron and Steel Raw Material Seminar 2005”, hosted by China Iron & Steel Association. Thank the seminar organizer for providing the opportunity for those in steel industry in the world and iron ore suppliers to exchange ideas and learn from each other. I believe that this conference will have positive effect on strengthening cooperation and exchanges among the industries and promoting healthy and sustainable development of China’s steel industry. Here, on behalf of Sinosteel Corporation, I congratulate in advance a complete success of the conference. Now, taking into account of China’s macro-economy and the development of China’s steel industry, I’ll put forth some views on demand and supply situation in China’s iron and steel market, new changes in market structure and prospect on 2006 iron ore pricing trend for your reference. 1. China’s economic increase promotes the sustainable development of steel industry.
1.1 Good developing prospect of China’s national economy and steel sector right now
There is outstanding achievement in China’s national economy growth in the recent ten years. According to the statistics in the first half of 2005, our GDP has remained at an average growth rate of 9.5% for 9 years and a half. Though probably affected by the macro-economic measures installed by the Chinese government from 2004, the GDP growth rate may not be as much as before; it should be around 9.2% based on official estimation. With the rapid development of our national economy, our steel industry has also experienced development in the recent 10 years. In these 10 years, China has been the largest steel producing country in the world. In 1996, the crude steel production exceeded 100 million tons, in 2003 200 million tons, in 2004 272 million tons, and it is expected to reach 340 million tons this year. It takes 7 years to reach 200 million tons from 100 million tons, while it takes only 2 years afterwards to inc