In the past year, the Chinese steel industry succeeded in a V-shaped recovery from the most severe economic crisis since World War II. China’s crude steel production in 2009 reached 567.8 million tons, an increase of 13.5% on 2008; a record annual crude steel production figure for a single country. China’s share of world steel production continued to grow in 2009 producing 47% of world total crude steel, an increase of 9 percentage points compared to 2008. In 2009, world crude steel production decreased 8.0% in total.

China Iron & Steel Association forecasts a 10% increase for crude steel production in 2010. As the largest producer and consumer of manganese alloys, China plays a key role in the world steel and manganese industry. There are problems in China that must be resolved. Both the manganese alloys and electrolytic manganese industries face huge capacity surplus. How will the government’s policies on economic structure upgrade will influence the manganese industry?

In 2009, China produced around 7 million tons of manganese alloys, consuming 9.6 million tons of manganese ore imported from 40 countries all over the world. Despite being rich in low-grade manganese ore resources, China nearly 100% relies on imports for 40%min manganese ore. Chinese imports account more than a half of the world's total trade flow. Just like iron ore, manganese ore prices rise when Chinese demand also increases. How is China going to influence the world market in the future?

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