In the first half year China has completed in total 381 kilometres urban railway length, according to the Economy & Information Commission release based on China Association of Metros report. Last year China added 535km with around CNY 384.7 billion ($56.85 billion) of completed investment, suggesting urban railway construction is even faster this year, Kallanish notes.

The annual new added urban railway length in 2016 had already increased 20.2% from 2015 and 83.5% from 2011. By the end of June there are 5,770km urban railways are under construction, plus around 1,400km from 53 projects to start construction in H2 2017. This is likely to support steel demand in the near future.

However, it is worth noting that the same data launched by the China Association of Metros shows that completed urban railway investment in 2016 increased just 4.45% year-on-year. More urban railway investment in second and third tier cities has helped control costs, but steel intensity is liekly to decline going forward.