Posted on 30 Aug 2023
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), together with the National Development and Reform Commission and five other government organizations, released a working plan last Friday focusing on the steady development of the country's iron and steel industry over 2023-2024.
The value-added of China's iron and steel industry aims to grow by 3.5% on year in 2023. The industry will strive to maintain a dynamic balance between steel supply and demand this year, and the fixed asset investment in the iron and steel industry is set to keep steady growth this year, according to the plan.
In 2024, the industrial structure of the industry will be optimized further towards high-end, intelligent and green development, and its value-added will expand by about 4%, as per the plan.
Over the first seven months of this year, China saw the value-added of its iron and steel industry achieve an on-year rise of 6.6%, higher by 2.8 percentage points than the average growth of the country's industries, MIIT's release revealed.
Meanwhile, the pattern of steel consumption in China has been continuously improved over January-July, with the proportion of steel used in construction works declining while steel structures and steel used in manufacturing increasing significantly.
However, the domestic steel industry still faces many challenges, such as weak demand from traditional steel-consuming sectors, phased imbalance between steel supply and demand, and falling profitability of the whole industry, the release showed.
In order to promote the high-quality development of China's iron and steel industry, more measures should be taken to optimize supply and expand demand, the working plan pointed out.
The plan highlighted accelerating technological innovation, promoting upgrading in steelmaking facilities, transition to green and low-carbon path, and promoting digital and intelligent development in the iron and steel industry, as well as pledging support to the development of electric furnaces.
In parallel, the country will strive to expand steel demand from major sectors, strengthening the promotion and application of steel structures, and enhancing the internationalization of China's steel industry chain, according to the plan.
The plan also proposed to take more efforts to lift China's capacity for steelmaking material supply, such as speeding up the development of key domestic iron ore projects, expanding the imports of recycled steel raw materials and encouraging the imports of high-quality coking coal.
China will continue to cultivate leading steel enterprises through promoting industrial merger and reorganization. Steel enterprises which have completed substantive mergers and reorganizations may gain greater policy support in capacity replacement, according to the plan.
Source:Mysteel Global
