China Steel Association: Strives for Overseas Imports of Minerals to reach 40%

Luo Bingsheng, vice president of the China Iron and Steel Association, said on February 23 that China’s steel companies should increase their overseas investment and development efforts and strive to import overseas rights and minerals to reach 40% of the country’s total iron ore imports.

Luo Bingsheng expressed his listing at the International Commodity Markets Status Analysis Conference held today. He also pointed out that China's current steel industry is undergoing major structural changes, the specific performance of the investment focus to accelerate the transfer of the upper reaches of the merger, speed up the merger and reorganization of large-scale steel enterprises, and increase the proportion of fixed assets investment.

Luo Bingsheng also disclosed that the grade of imported iron ore in China has continued to decline in recent years, and the inferiority of raw materials has become apparent. In 2010, the average grade of imported iron ore was 61.7%, a year-on-year decrease of 0.75 percentage points.

Previously, China Steel Association disclosed in the market analysis report that in 2010, the total sales of steel enterprises nationwide reached 3.08 trillion yuan, an increase of 33.58%; but the industry's total profit was only 89.715 billion yuan.

According to data from the General Administration of Customs, China imported 618 million tons of iron ore in 2010, of which imports from Australia, Brazil, India, and South Africa totaled 522 million tons, accounting for 84.43% of total imports.