1.Overall performance of the Chinese steel market in 2013 Overall evaluation:first,steel output,apparent consumption,import and export all registered growth year on year,while the steel price dropped significantly;second,the decrease of steel price is bigger than the drop of cost;third,strong supply capacity,i.e.the fixed asset investment of the steel industry (excluding investment in iron ore)remains at a high level and there are huge surplus capacity.Huge surplus capacity led to vicious competition and the steel price could hardly rise after easy slump,thus leading to low economic efficiency of the whole industry.