Under the new situation, steel enterprises should do four aspects of work – “ensure survival, seek development, increase experience, and carbon storage”

On November 24, the 2024 Construction Steel Development Trend Summit Forum hosted by Lange Steel Network was held in Beijing. Nearly 100 representatives from steel enterprises, steel trade enterprises, scientific research institutes, financial institutions and other fields attended the forum. Participants around the construction steel demand trend, real estate market and other topics to exchange.

At the forum, Ren Xingzhou, former Director and Researcher of the Institute of Market Economy of the Development Research Center of The State Council, analyzed the current economic situation and policies and their impact on the demand for construction steel. She believes that factors such as the overall recovery of the economy, the implementation of policy measures to expand domestic demand, market expectations and changes in consumption capacity will affect the real estate market in 2024. She predicted that in the first half of next year, the real estate market is expected to improve marginally and gradually pick up, which will drive sales and investment recovery. New homes and improved housing will be more favored, and savings transactions are expected to increase.

Wang Huanyou, Chairman of Steel stick E-commerce Co., Ltd., proposed in his speech entitled “The future road of steel mill marketing and circulation enterprises under Demand reduction” that manufacturer collaboration is the future direction of cooperation between steel enterprises and steel traders. He said that under the current situation, steel traders should be more clear about their positioning, not only to create value for upstream steel enterprises, but also to provide solutions for downstream users, through service terminals, service customers, strengthen inventory management, and improve the ability to game in the market.

Dr. Hu Rirong, Director of the construction steel project of the Metallurgical Industry Information Standards Research Institute, predicted the trend of the steel market next year in the keynote speech. He believes that in 2024, the steel supply level will continue to implement the production = volume control policy with a high probability, and the crude steel production will be flat or slightly decreased with 2023. On the demand side, the decline in real estate steel demand is expected to narrow, the demand for manufacturing steel will rise steadily, and the demand for energy steel will maintain growth. In terms of cost, as the iron ore supply and demand pattern tends to ease, the cost pressure on steel will decrease, and industry profits are expected to gradually repair.

Hu Rirong suggested that the next step, iron and steel enterprises should do four aspects of work :- is to ensure survival, improve the level of energy efficiency, the use of cost, green, quality and so on to form a competitive advantage. The second is to seek development and plan transformation and upgrading in a timely manner, such as the decline in demand for traditional construction steel, and relevant enterprises must make strategic adjustments. The third is to gain experience, actively participate in the construction of evaluation standards for green manufacturing, green products, green factories, etc., and enhance green and low-carbon competitiveness. Fourth, carbon storage, including strengthening the capacity to deal with carbon tariffs.

In addition, representatives such as Guan Dazi, an expert in the futures field, Wei Jingjing, Senior Manager of the Industry Operation Ddepartment of the retail company of the Bank of Ningbo Beijing Branch, shared topics such as the discussion of enterprise risk management mode of the industrial chain and financial tools to help the development of enterprises.

In the forum held during the same period of the salon dialogue, purchasing, sales related representatives from Shougang Changgang, Angang Zhoukou Steel Company, Yangchun new steel, Eight Steel, Jiangsu Bin Xin Iron and steel, Ling Steel discussed around the regional steel market and supply and demand pattern evolution. They believe that in 2024, with the adjustment of industrial policy, it will stimulate the demand for real estate, infrastructure and other fields, and the construction steel market is still worth looking forward to next year. Overall, the steel market in the first half of next year will be better than the overall level this year.