The National Two Sessions held in early March attracted much attention. Traders in the field of steel circulation have also paid special attention to the positive messages of "steel demand" delivered by the two sessions. On March 12th, Liang Taigeng, general manager of Shanghai Hualei Enterprise Development Co., Ltd., Ren Qingping, chairman of Shanghai Wubo Steel Structure Materials Co., Ltd., and Li Zhongshuang, general manager of Shanghai Ruikun Metal Materials Co., Ltd., were receiving reporters from China Metallurgical News. During the interview, it was stated that the “steel demand” highlights of the two sessions this year flashed. It is expected that the effective domestic steel terminal demand will be strong this year, and the total demand will show a growth trend, which is expected to reach 991 million tons.

The steel trader believes that, combined with the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China and the Outline of Long-Term Goals for 2035" (hereinafter referred to as the "Planning Outline") approved by the Fourth Session of the 13th National People’s Congress on March 11 ") and this year's government work report, the highlights of the "steel demand" contained in the following areas are eye-catching.

Highlight 1: Infrastructure construction

This year’s government work report clearly stated that it is necessary to expand effective investment. It is planned to arrange local government special bonds of 3.65 trillion yuan and give priority to supporting projects under construction; the central budget allocates 610 billion yuan to invest in major projects that promote coordinated regional development and promote the "two "New First Heavy" construction, implement a number of major engineering projects such as transportation, energy, water conservancy and so on. It is foreseeable that infrastructure construction will still be a powerful engine for this year's "steel demand".

In terms of policies, the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission have recently jointly issued the "Notice on Combating the Funding Requirements for New Special Bond Projects in 2021", proposing that this year's new special bonds will be mainly used for transportation infrastructure, energy projects, agriculture, forestry, water conservancy, and ecological environmental protection. Projects, social undertakings, urban and rural cold chain logistics facilities, municipal and industrial park infrastructure, major national strategic projects, and affordable housing projects. These fields contain a large demand space, which is worthy of full exploration by steel traders.

With the vigorous promotion of infrastructure construction throughout the country, the demand for steel will be boosted, especially for construction steel such as rebar and wire rod. Steel traders predict that the construction steel market will perform well this year, and the demand for construction steel will increase by more than 13% year-on-year.

Highlight 2: Building a strong transportation country

The "Planning Outline" proposes to accelerate the construction of a transportation power, improve comprehensive transportation channels, comprehensive transportation hubs and logistics networks, accelerate urban agglomerations and metropolitan rail transit networks, and increase the depth of transportation access in rural and border areas.

Recently, the "National Comprehensive Three-dimensional Transportation Network Planning Outline" issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council proposed to build a comprehensive transportation hub cluster, hub city, and hub port station. Four major international comprehensive transportation hub clusters in the Triangle, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and Chengdu-Chongqing double-city economic circle; accelerate the construction of about 20 international comprehensive transportation hub cities and about 80 national comprehensive transportation hub cities; promote a number of international comprehensive transportation hub cities The construction of a national hub port station and a national hub port station.

Steel traders said that behind the constantly introduced policies are the embodiment of the country's determination to build a strong transportation country. Under this circumstance, it is expected that the amount of steel used in domestic railway and highway construction will increase significantly this year, and the steel demand for intercity rail and high-speed railway will reach more than 25 million tons.