China today produces nearly half of the world's steel and is the world's largest importer of iron ore. Steel has been a central part of China's rapid growth story, but it is also a source of many problems that range from the Chinese industry s environmental impact to the problems associated with the continued dominance the sector's state owned enterprises. This book of chapters edited by Ligang Song and Haimin Liu is a major and comprehensive contribution to this important topic.' - Dwight Perkins, Harvard University, Department of Economics, US'Chinese economic reform and opening to the international economy since the late 1970s have changed the country and the world. The developments in the steel industry through the reform period are central to those changes, illuminative of them, and of immense significance in themselves. This book throws new light on these historic changes for Chinese and foreign readers alike.' - From the foreword by Ross Garnaut, University of Melbourne, Australia This unique and informative book provides a central reference work on the Chinese steel industry and discusses China s increasing demand on metals from both macroeconomic and regional perspectives. It includes macroeconomic studies of developments in Chinese resource demand with particular reference to the ferrous metals and microeconomic studies that utilize comprehensive firm-level data to evince new knowledge of both firm and industry performance with respect to their productivity, the technical efficiency, and industrial linkages. The book also discusses trade in steel products and the impact of the restructuring of the industry on the environment. This detailed and analytical study will appeal to academics, students and researchers in Chinese studies, government agencies and private sectors - such as the mining industry, as well as financial agencies analyzing the Chinese demand on global resources. Contributors include: G. Dai, J. Golley, H. Liu, H. McKay, Y. Sheng, L. Song, Y. Zheng