Tan Chengxu, president of the China Iron and Steel Industry Association, said at the sixth session of the China Iron and Steel Industry Association (expanded) meeting held in Anshan on the 29th that in the first half of the year, as China’s economy continued to recover, steel production increased year-on-year, ensuring the demand for steel for economic recovery and development.
In the first half of this year, Chinese steel enterprises actively adopted various countermeasures, and achieved results in many aspects such as supply and demand balance, cost control, operation safety, and green development. Official data show that in the first half of this year, the country’s crude steel production of 536 million tons, an increase of 1.3%; Pig iron output was 452 million tons, up 2.7% year-on-year; Steel production of 677 million tons, an increase of 4.4%.
Tan Chengxu said that from the demand point of view, the manufacturing industry, the automobile industry in the new energy vehicles and exports driven by the performance of the three indicators of the shipping industry ranked first in the world, the sub-industries of machinery differentiation, home appliances industry cold outside the heat, the container industry continues to decline sharply, the real estate industry continues to slump. In the first half of the year, China’s apparent consumption of crude steel fell by 1.9% year-on-year, steel consumption structure is changing, the proportion of steel used in the construction industry declined, ships, automobiles, home appliances, wind power steel, photovoltaic steel and other continued growth, effectively supporting the growth of steel varieties and quantities used in the manufacturing industry.
Since the beginning of this year, the average level of steel prices has declined year-on-year, showing a narrow fluctuation trend. According to the China Iron and Steel Association monitoring, in the first half of the year, the average value of China’s steel price index (CSPI) was 113.21 points, down 15.4% year-on-year. Tan Chengxu stressed that in the face of the current situation of phased imbalance in the market, the majority of member enterprises set production by sales and efficiency, and firmly safeguard the safety of operation. At the same time, we will further promote management reform, actively explore potential for the standard, and vigorously promote cost reduction and expenditure saving. Improving system efficiency and improving production and operation have played a positive role, and the overall operation of the industry has maintained a stable situation.
Looking forward to the second half of the year, Tan Chengxu pointed out that with the cumulative effect of the national policy to actively expand demand and stimulate economic vitality, it is expected that the manufacturing industry will maintain stable development, infrastructure construction will continue to power, the real estate industry will gradually stabilize, and demand will achieve a new balance after the reduction. Overall, it is expected that China’s steel consumption will have a slight downward trend in 2023.