China Skyscraper Construction to Support Commodities Boom

Rejecting suggestions that the global demand for steel and other building materials is headed toward a significant downturn, Rio Tinto has cited recent research on Chinese skyscraper construction to justify continued optimism in commodities markets. Last month, the mining group reported H1 profits of $5.5 billion.

A report by McKinsey & Co. forecasts that China will build 50,000 skyscrapers in the next 20 years -- the equivalent of 10 NYCs.

Some analysts had been forecasting a dip in Chinese investment after the Olympics, but Rio is predicting that there will be a post-games boom. The company cited research from McKinsey, the management consultancy, which said the scale and pace of urbanisation would continue at an unprecedented rate.

By 2025, the report predicts that China will have 221 cities with more than a million inhabitants, compared with 35 in Europe today. As well as the need for huge pending on infrastructure, McKinsey projects that China will build between 20,000 and 50,000 skyscrapers, many of them in less developed interior provinces far from Beijing and Shanghai.

> Chinese skyscraper builders to put up equivalent of 10 New Yorks, says Rio Tinto [Guardian]