Is "steel demand" for infrastructure worth looking forward to this year?

In recent years, China has obvious advantages in the field of traditional infrastructure, known as the "crazy infrastructure". By the end of 2020, the total length of China's high-speed rail reached 37,900 km, ranking first in the world.More than 80% of the world's 100 highest Bridges are in China.Facing the future development of Chinese economy and the new crown the sudden outbreak of epidemic, "the new infrastructure plan envisaged is to speed up the ground," "new construction" is different from the "iron and machine" (the traditional construction of railway, highway, airport), is the large data, such as artificial intelligence, 5 g, block chain for the technical support of the "digital infrastructure,"To achieve the dual goals of hedging against the pressure of slowing economic growth and pursuing digital transformation of the economic structure.However, at present, the effect of new infrastructure on economic development is not obvious, traditional infrastructure is still the main driving force of domestic economic development.

Infrastructure investment (excluding electricity, heat, gas and water production and supply) grew 4.6 percent year on year in the january-July period, down 3.2 percentage points from january-June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.From January to July, China's investment in fixed assets in transportation reached 1.888.6 billion yuan, up 5.2% year on year and 15.1% over the same period in 2019, with a two-year average growth of 7.3%.From January to July, road investment reached 1.4 trillion yuan, up 8.8% year on year.Investment in water transportation was 81.7 billion yuan, up 21.4% year on year;From January to July, China's railway fixed asset investment reached 362.83 billion yuan, down 7.7 percent year-on-year.

According to statistics from the China Electricity Council, from January to July 2021, China's major power generation enterprises completed an investment of 222.7 billion yuan in power supply projects, up 4.1% year-on-year.Of this, 53.7 billion yuan was spent on hydropower, up 21.1% year on year;Thermal power 23.8 billion yuan, up 4.8% year on year;Nuclear power 26.8 billion yuan, up 51.8% year on year;Wind power was 99.2 billion yuan, down 10.8% year on year.Completed investment in clean energy such as hydropower, nuclear power and wind power accounted for 91.7% of completed investment in power supply, down 0.7% year-on-year.From January to July, 202.9 billion yuan was invested in power grid projects, down 1.2 percent year on year.

Due to infrastructure investment growth is still on the low side, during the first half of the second half of the special bond issuance will be appropriate to speed up, to steady steady growth in investment, to guide local strengthening project reserves, push end early next year to form physical workload, but also accelerate the new infrastructure, new urbanization, major projects "two new" construction, support expanding effective investment,We will ensure funding needs for key projects, improve the way government investment is arranged, and strengthen the sustainability of investment growth.By the end of July 2021, local governments nationwide had issued 1.883.3 trillion yuan of new local government bonds, including 528.7 billion yuan of general bonds and 1.354.6 trillion yuan of special bonds. About 50% of the new special bonds issued by local governments from January to July were invested in major projects in transportation infrastructure, municipal administration and industrial parks.About 30 percent will go to government-subsidized housing and major social programs such as health care, education, elderly care, culture and tourism.About 20% will go to major projects in agriculture, forestry, water conservancy, energy, and urban and rural cold chain logistics.With the steady investment policy, the appropriate acceleration of special bond issuance, and the gradual commencement of major projects, infrastructure investment is expected to maintain a growth trend, and the "steel demand" for infrastructure construction in this year is worth looking forward to.