The Chinese real estate market, the largest steel-consuming industry, is showing the best trends this year against the backdrop of government support. Chinese shipbuilding remains stable. Demand for shipbuilding steel will reportedly be driven by factors such as the aging of existing ships, the pressure of new environmental regulations, and changing global trade routes.
In January 2023, the country's new orders index for the steel industry hit 43.9 points, up 5 points from December 2022. This shows that steel demand remains stable and is recovering.
Wang Guoqing, research director of Lange Steel's Beijing Information and Research Center, told that the increase in domestic steel consumption in the country is likely to lead to an increase in imports of iron ore and coke, including from Australia. Experts believe that diversifying and expanding the coke supply could help further stabilize domestic steel prices and increase the profits of the refineries.
In 2022, China reduced its steel products imports by 25.9% compared to 2021 to 10.57 million tons. Thus, imports to the country since 1993 have decreased to the minimum level. Due to the significant increase in production costs in the environment of high inflation and energy crisis, steel imports to the country decreased. Last year, China's steel product shipments became more concentrated in terms of origin.
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