Ahead of the S&P Global Platts Global Metals Awards in London, on May 16, The Barrel presents a special series of articles looking at the global metals trade. Paul Bartholomew and Jing Zhang take an in-depth look at China’s steel production in recent years, and the likely trajectory in 2019.

Just a few years ago, market updates from major iron ore producers Rio Tinto and BHP routinely stated that they expected Chinese crude steel production to reach 1 billion metric tons by the end of the next decade.

This sounded like an incredible amount of steel, particularly as China’s economic growth trajectory was heading south. Further, such a prediction seemed unrealistic given China’s steel output had retreated by 2.3% in 2015 to just under 804 million mt. › Continue Reading