CISA deputy vice president Luo Bingsheng expected better performances by the steel industry next year.

Domestic demand for steel continues to rise as China is still in the midst of its urbanization. Chinas new consumption of crude steel stands at between 50 million tons to 60 million tons each year and is expected to exceed 60 million tons in 2010 suppose the fixed investment grows at a pace of over 20 percent.

Luo said stimulated by the infrastructure-led spending such as railways and roads, consumption of long product rose by 28 percent and that of flat product by 4 percent this year.

The overall prices remained at a low level in much of this year with a sales margin of about 2.2 percent in the steel sector. The prices next year are expected to follow an upward trend given the rising costs of water, electricity, coal and transportation as well as expectations on higher prices of iron ore for 2010 shipment.

The CISA is trying to make itself more vocal in the tricky iron ore price negotiations with the worlds top three suppliers who have demanded a 20 to 30 percent rise, by pushing to set up a united price across China, pursue a nationwide agent system for imported iron ore and minimize the number of iron ore importers.