Steel firms see their fortunes brighten in October (2)

The cost of imported iron ore decreased by 18.43 percent during the first nine months of the year, the association said.

By the end of October, the country had imported 607.12 million metric tons of the ore, up 8.9 percent year-on-year, customs figures show.

The National Development and Reform Commission approved a series of infrastructure projects in September in an attempt to boost the economy.

Among them are 25 urban rails, 13 highways and 22 railways. For the railway projects, the planned amount of fixed-assets investment has increased from 516 billion yuan, set at the beginning of the year, to 630 billion yuan.

"The demand for steel products in the fourth quarter will increase quickly compared with the first three quarters because of increasing investments in newly approved projects," the association said.

Even so, overcapacity still exists and will take time to overcome, Wang said.

Since the beginning of the year, the association has been encouraging its member companies to reduce production to a reasonable scale and take steps to prevent detrimental competition in the market.

According to the association, large Chinese steel companies' daily output decreased to 1.51 million tons, or by 5.39 percent, in the last 10 days of October.

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