In business, a lot can change in five years. In 1999, China was the world’s 14th largest exporter of milled steel products – that’s the basic steel shapes like flat products (coil, sheet, plate and strip steel) and long products (rod, bars, tubes and wire), typically used in construction and in certain manufacturing sectors, such as the auto industry.
But by 2004, China had leapt from the 14th to the fifth-largest world steel exporter, and this year will see China among the global top three. Six months into 2005, China was already vying for top spot on the world export leaderboard (see table below), along with Russia and Japan, each with over 16 million tons of steel exports. It’s simply too close to call as to which of these three countries will finish the year as the world’s biggest exporter. So just as Chinese textile mills have come to dominate world markets, it now seems that China’s steel mills are poised to emulate their success.
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