As the countries of Asia have urbanised and industrialised, the demand for infrastructure has grown very strongly. When people move to the cities, new dwellings need to be built, and as living standards rise, so too does the quality of dwellings  BIS Review 117/2010  1  constructed.
The growth of urban centres also requires the building of communication and transport networks, with the demand for roads, bridges, railways etc rising. All this development requires raw materials. In particular, it requires steel to build the apartments in which the new city dwellers live and to build the infrastructure that supports those cities.