China’s steel consumption drops

BEIJING: China’s apparent crude steel consumption fell for the first time in three decades in 2014, data from an industry association showed, a further indication of how the country’s economic slowdown is hurting industrial demand.
A decline in the use of steel in China, which is both the top consumer and producer of the alloy, will dent iron ore prices that have already been roiled by a global oversupply.
Spot rates of the steelmaking ingredient are currently mired near a 5-1/2 year low $65.60 per ton.
China’s apparent crude steel consumption fell 3.4 percent from a year ago to 738.3 million tons in 2014, according to calculations published by the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) on Thursday.
Official data shows China’s power output growth fell to a 16-year low last year, while coal output likely dropped for the first time in more than a decade. Struggling with weak demand as economic growth slowed to 7.4 percent in 2014, the lowest since 1990, Chinese steel producers turned to exports, which according to CISA rose 64.5 percent to the equivalent of 84.4 million tons of crude steel last year.