China’s steel output expected to drop in 2020 after infrastructure, real estate boom led to record 2019
- The world’s top steel producer is expected to produce 981 million tonnes of crude steel in 2020 and 988 million tonnes in 2019
- Steel demand in China is expected to fall 0.6 per cent year-on-year to 881 million tonnes in 2020, but rise 7.3 per cent to 886 million in 2019
China’s crude steel output in 2020 is expected to ease from a record high in 2019, a government consultancy said on Thursday.
Steel demand in China is expected to fall 0.6 per cent year-on-year to 881 million tonnes in 2020, but rise 7.3 per cent to 886 million in 2019, Li said.
Steel consumption in 2019 is better than expected mainly due to rapidly growing infrastructure investment and real estate development, while industrial production is also generally stable
China produced 829.22 million tonnes of steel in the first 10 months of the year, up 7.4 per cent from the same period last year.
A rapid growth in output this year has stoked worries about China’s years of efforts to cut overcapacity, leading to a joint probe on production capacity at its steel mills by the National Development and Reform Commission and other government entities in November.
The research body also anticipated iron ore demand in China to reach 1.225 billion tonnes in 2020 and 1.264 billion tonnes in 2019.
China brought in 1.06 billion tonnes of iron ore last year and exported 69.34 million tonnes of steel products.
China’s pig iron output is expected to contract to 775 million tonnes in 2020 from 800 million forecast for 2019.
