Recycling of steel in China and impact on demand for iron ore
The efforts made by China to increase the amount of recycled steel will have a growing impact on the demand for iron ore, as reported by Reuters. Analysts believe that these developments threaten to worsen an oversupply, putting the suppliers of raw materials under further pressure. In 2014, China imported 933 million tonnes of iron ore, covering 78.5% of its total overall requirements. Now, the country is trying to make the best use of steel buried in landfills or trapped in reinforced concrete. According to analysts, the collection of scrap steel could reach as much as 200 million tonnes by 2020. According to one of the forecasts, China could obtain 20% of its steel from scrap by 2020, and could see this figure rise to 39% by 2030.. The demand for iron ore will decrease starting from 2017, as the generation of salvaged materials will increase at a faster pace than demand, according to the estimates of some analysts. Today, the collection of scrap steel is at a very low level, but the efforts put in place by the Government to create the infrastructure for its collection and disposal should soon start to bear fruit.