Speaking at the 48th annual meeting of worldsteel (World Steel Association) held in Moscow on October 6, Hans Jürgen Kerkhoff, chairman of the worldsteel Economics Committee said that with a seven percent negative GDP growth expected for this year, China is facing "a new normal". Mr. Kerkhoff added that China's "new normal" will bring a new normal for the global steel industry until other emerging economies break out of the current slump.
The decline in China's steel demand is due to current slowdown China's real estate sector which is a government induced correction, aimed at avoiding bubble burst according to Mr. Kerkhoff. China's housing market is expected to recover in the second half of next year thanks to government measures. Mr. Kerkhoff added that mini stimulus by the Chinese government has been instrumental in avoiding a hard landing of Chinese economy.
Regarding other emerging economies other than China, Mr. Kerkhoff said that other emerging economies possess high potential for growing steel demand via investment and infrastructure development. Implementation of reforms to tackle structural bottlenecks and investment inducing government measures will unleash the potential.
Commenting on GDP growth, Mr. Kerkhoff indicated that the developing countries underperformed the expectations in 2014 and said that developed countries will grow faster than the developing countries which is untraditional.
