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For the past few years, the direction and health of the global steel industry is being determined by what is happening in China. The scenario is going to be the same in the coming years despite reports of an imminent drop in production and consumption of steel in that country. We can briefly review the full year of 2013 to examine this hypothesis.

China has created effective steel-making capacity of 841 million tonnes, a predominant share of 46% of the global capacity. In 2013 alone, around 22 new blast furnaces have come into operation in China.

It produced 779 million tonnes of crude steel at an annual growth rate of 7.5% against the global average of 3.5% and occupying a share of 48.5% of the total production. It consumed approximately 47 % of the global steel market. The Chinese export of steel reached 62.4 million tonnes, a growth of 12% over the previous year. Its primary export destinations are South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines and USA. India's share in total Chinese steel exports stood at only 2.6%.

A near self-sufficiency in steel is observed by China as its steel imports have come down at 14.1 million tonnes in 2013, leaving it to be a net exporter at 48.3 million tonnes.

Steel imports by China comprised flat products, special steel and railway products.

These are the areas where there is a gap in domestic availability. China imports little steel on price considerations unlike India.

As regards raw materials, the principle pursued by China is pragmatic and not bogged down by rhetoric and legal framework of WTO regulations. It conserves unprocessed raw materials, imposes restrictions in the form of quota/licences/taxes to make export of raw materials commercially non-viable.

China imported nearly 820 million tonnes of iron ore in 2013, 10% more than last year, mostly from Australia (51%), Brazil (19%), South Africa (5%), Iran(3%),Canada( 2%) and India ( 1.4%). Its domestic production of crude ore reached 1.4 billion tonnes. Applying the standard norm, this equals to an annual production of 468 million tonnes.

The Fe content of indigenous reserve of iron ore being low, China has deployed beneficiation and agglomeration technology on a wide scale to utilize the domestic resources fruitfully. This is why the indigenous cost of iron ore availability is higher than the CFR value of imported iron ore. China is exporting bauxite, zinc, rare earths and other raw materials under specific restrictive measures. China has produced 476.4 million tonnes of coke, exported coke of only 4.7 million tonnes, less than 1% of domestic production. It has also imported coking coal at 75.4 million tonnes.

Its production of ferro alloys stood at 37.8 million tonnes in 2013 and export of 1.2 million tonnes comprises only 3.2% of domestic production. India received only 43.3 thousand tonnes of ferro alloys from China.

China is also the top exporter of steel-containing manufactured goods like machinery and equipment, white goods and transport equipment.

The high level of indirect steel exports have helped China to enhance steel capacity utilization.

European steel lobby Eurofer plans to file anti-dumping cases this year with the European Commission against exports of cold rolled stainless sheet from China and Taiwan and of electrical steel sheet from Russia.

If the Commission, the European Union's executive, takes up the cases, they will join a series of damaging trade disputes over recent years between the 28-nation EU and China, as well as some with Russia.

"We have two cases in an advanced stage where we suspect dumping and subsidies. One concerns Russia, the other concerns China and Taiwan. They will be filed this year," Eurofer director general Gordon Moffat told Reuters.

The China Iron and Steel Association was not available to comment when contacted by Reuters, while the European Commission declined to comment. China Steel Corp. (2002.TW), Taiwan's biggest steelmaker, said it was unaware of the planned action and had no comment.

Russia's vice minister of industry and trade, Viktor Yevtukhov, said Moscow would stand behind its steel producers.

"(We) emphasised the need to abandon protectionist policies during the meetings with European colleagues. Taking into account the discriminatory approaches the Europeans use in their anti dumping investigations, both Russian business and the state doubt the fairness of such probes," Yevtukhov said.

The cold rolled stainless market in western Europe is estimated at about 4.6 million tonnes or 11 billion euros (9 billion pounds) annually, according to steel consultancy MEPS. The European market for electrical steel sheet is much smaller by comparison.

NLMK (NLMK.MM), one of Russia's top steelmakers, said: "If the investigations start, NLMK will provide all the necessary information, which will confirm that the export of Russian electrical steel is not dumping."

The EU currently has duties on a number of steel products from China, including steel bolts and screws – ranging between 22.9 percent and 74.1 percent and which China says have not been calculated in accordance with rules laid down by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The bloc has also deemed some Russian producers of fertilisers, ferro-alloys, pipelines, other steel products and aluminium foil to be in breach of its anti-dumping policies as they have access to cheap energy in Russia's domestic market.

Russia says the duties have cost the companies involved many millions of dollars a year, and has warned it may take the EU to the WTO over its rules relating to the advantage of cheap energy.

Producing steel profitably in the EU has become difficult given shrinking demand – down some 27 percent since 2008 – plus higher energy and labour costs compared with Asian competitors, and structural overcapacity of around 30 million-40 million tonnes.

China, by far the world's largest steel producer, continues to churn out steel at a record rates as authorities prop up state-owned plants to keep employment high and avoid social unrest.

Production during the second half of 2013 exceeded earlier predictions. Nevertheless, the outturn in South Korea, EU and Japan was lower than in 2012. Output in Taiwan and the United States recovered somewhat, to achieve figures estimated to be more than 2% higher than in the previous twelve months. However, production in all of these established stainless steel making countries and regions remains significantly below the peak figures achieved in 2006.

The growth of Chinese production will, inevitably, slow from the rapid rate of recent years. We do anticipate, though, that output will continue to climb by 6.8% in 2014 – faster than anywhere else – to reach 19.3 million MT. This would represent almost 50% of global stainless steel production.

The annual total global crude stainless steel production for 2013 is estimated to have reached an all-time high of 37.3 million MT. This surpasses the previous record mark, set in 2012, by 5.5%. MEPS forecasts that worldwide output will increase by a further 4.6% in 2014, to a new peak figure of 39 million MT.

Output in the countries classed as “Others” is forecast to grow by 3.5%, this year, to total 3.725 million MT.

After slipping by between 2 and 3% in 2013, the outturn in both South Korea and Taiwan is forecast to increase by a similar amount, this year, to achieve figures of 2.125 million MT and 1.1 million MT, respectively – close to the numbers recorded in 2012.

Production in the United States is expected to exhibit further, moderate growth of around 1.2% in 2014, reaching an annual outturn of 2.05 million MT.

The Economic Daily climate Index of China Steel Industry for the Fourth Quarter of 2013 was posted by Industry Research Centers and the National Bureau of Statistics China Economic on January 20.

Monitoring shows that the fourth quarter of 2013, the steel industry sentiment index was 98.0 points, almost equal to the previous quarter. According to the sales situation analysis, steady growth policies and real estate, automotive and other downstream industries to some extent, enhance the iron and steel industry boom.

From the specific indicators, during the fourth quarter of 2013, China's crude steel production rose 7.9%, the growth rate accelerated 0.4 percentage points from the previous quarter; steel industry, the main business revenue grew by 10.3%, the growth rate improved 3.6 percentage points from the previous quarter.  

Although the steel industry sales growth has picked up, but steel prices at low levels, loan delinquency status significantly. In the fourth quarter, the level of the steel industry product prices fell 3.5 percent, the industry accounts receivable grew by 15.2%, 5.2 percentage points from the previous quarter to accelerate. This shows that the growth in market demand is still not strong enough; the steel industry overcapacity pressure is still great.

If you look up the definition of steel you will find something along the lines of "an iron alloy containing more than 0.1% carbon". If you look up the composition of most Stainless Steel you will find that the carbon content is limited to less than 0.1%. Therefore, Stainless Steel is technically not steel. Why is the carbon content of Stainless Steel limited? Well, if you mess up the heat treatment the carbon likes to combine with the Cr to form chromium carbide which has the formula Cr23C6. This compound forms along the grain boundaries (not defined here) and robs the regions along the grain boundaries of Cr. However, Cr was added to the material to make it corrosion resistant so if you remove it the Stainless Steel is no longer stainless. That is why the carbon concentration of Stainless Steel is limited. So Stainless Steel does not contain much carbon to make sure that it remains stainless. What is the result? Carbon is responsible for making steels hard so they hold a really nice cutting edge.
 

Therefore, Stainless Steel is not very hard and makes lousy cutting tools. Well not really. Metallurgists figured that a metal that was both stainless and held a decent cutting edge would be great so they developed some Stainless Steel that held a fairly good cutting edge. In the US, these are the 400 series Stainless Steel. The key is that, through careful control of the composition and heat treatment, you can create a metal that is a good compromise between corrosion resistance and hardness. However, it you make a mistake in either one you end up with a material that is too hard (brittle) or too soft (won't hold and edge). Generally, cheap Stainless Steel tools such as knives err on the side of too soft while high quality tools generally are right on or err on the side of too hard.

South Korean steel major Posco has received conditional re-validation of environment clearance from the environment ministry for its $12-billion steel project in Odisha.

South Korean steel major Posco has received conditional re-validation of environment clearance from the environment ministry for its $12-billion steel project in Odisha, a company official said on Thursday.

The proposed 12-million-tonne-per-annum plant near Paradip port town in Jagatsinghpur district, about 100 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, was given a five-year environment clearance in July 2007.

The revalidation of the clearance was necessary for the company to proceed on the project, the official told IANS

The revalidation was granted on the condition that the company will spend five percent of its investment on "enterprise social commitments", he said.

The decision comes days ahead of South Korean President Park Geun-hye's four-day visit to India beginning January 15.

The state government signed an agreement with Posco in 2005 for the project, the largest foreign direct investment in India.

The government has already acquired 2,700 acres of land required for the first phase of the project (eight million tonnes per annum).