Energy and metals information provider Platts, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., US, has released the 2012 edition of its Platts SBB China Top 100 Steel Making Companies & Iron Ore Reserves Map. The Map offers a detailed snapshot of China's steel industry as of the end of 2011 and an update of the top 100 companies.
In light of significant structural changes within China's steel industry in 2011, the map's seventh edition details the ownership and products produced by the 198 steel mills which are owned by the top 100 steel-making companies – 14 more steel mills than are in last year's map.
For convenient reference, colours differentiate the two main production methods. Blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) uses iron ore as its base raw material, and electric arc furnace (EAF) uses scrap as its base. Colour coding offers viewers an at-a-glance view of the geographical distribution of EAF steel makers and clearly reveals the extent to which these producers are located in Jiangsu province in the Yangtze River Delta region. Located in Eastern China, this region accounts for 20 percent of China's gross domestic product (GDP) as well as one-third of its imports and exports.
The map is inclusive of charts which illustrate the 10 fastest growing and largest provinces by GDP in 2011 and monthly prices of reinforcing bar (rebar) and hot-rolled coil between March 2011 and March 2012. The map also indicates China's iron ore reserves by size.
The 2012 edition also features 28 new steel mills mostly located in China's inland provinces and provides details on 10 steel mills having annual production of less than one million metric tons (mt).
Platts offers approximately 30 maps and maps products, in addition to a wide variety of Geographic Information System (GIS) data.
