Steel Production In China Research Articles

Energy use and carbon dioxide emissions from steel production in China

In 1996, China manufactured just over 100 Mt of steel and became the world's largest steel producer. Official Chinese energy consumption statistics for the steel industry include activities not directly associated with the production of steel, ‘double-count’ some coal-based energy consumption, and do not cover the entire Chinese steelmaking industry. In this paper, we make adjustements to the reported statistical data in order to provide energy use values for steel production in China that are comparable to statistics used internationally. We find that for 1996, official statistics need to be reduced by 1365 PJ to account for non-steel production activities and double-counting. Official statistics also need to be increased by 415 PJ in order to include steelmaking energy use of small plants not included in official statistics. This leads to an overall reduction of 950 PJ for steelmaking in China in 1996. Thus, the official final energy use value of 4018 PJ drops to 3067 PJ. In primary energy terms, the official primary energy use value of 4555 PJ is reduced to 3582 PJ when these adjustments are made.

Determinants of China's import demand for Australia's iron ore

This paper analyzes China's imports of iron ore from Australia, using annual time series data for the period 1973–1996. Considerations include variables affecting iron ore trade between the two countries, such as the previous trade volume, GDP growth rate and steel production in China, labor disputes in Australia, the relative price of Australia's iron ore to the world average, and Chinese government policies. Results indicate that China's import of Australia's iron ore is positively affected by the volume of steel production in China and Chinese government's policy following the cultural revolution era. Increases in the relative price of Australia's iron ore and labor disputes measured by the working days lost in Australia appear to reduce China's import demand.