Imports of iron ore are expected to reach 730 million tons this year

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China in the "2012 Outlook for Iron and Steel Industry Operations" recently released predicts that the import volume of iron ore by Chinese steel companies this year will be about 730 million tons, a slight increase from last year. Under the background that the import volume of iron ore continues to remain high, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) specifically pointed out that it is necessary to actively and steadily push forward the new pricing model for iron ore and improve the iron ore resources protection capabilities.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology expects the growth rate of steel consumption to decline slightly in 2012. As the world’s largest importer of iron ore, this year’s iron ore imports are expected to increase to 730 million tons, slightly higher than the 686 million tons in 2011, and the price is expected to be higher than last year. Decline; domestic steel prices remain weak, and the highs in the year will hardly exceed the 2011 highs, and steel prices will feature highs and lows.

Since the second half of 2011, due to the European debt crisis dragging down the global economic growth slowdown, China's steel exports have been sluggish, the high cost of the steel industry, the industry profitability has dropped sharply, the key large and medium-sized iron and steel enterprises sales profit rate of only 2.42% , a year-on-year decrease of 0.58 percentage points, far lower than the average level of 6.47% of industrial enterprises above designated size in the same period.

The major reason for the declining profitability of Chinese steel companies is the sharp increase in the price of imported iron ore.