Contributing 11% to export growth and 11.5% to import growth China's influencing power over the world economy is gradually increasing. It is because that China is leadingnot only in the growth of global economy and trade, but also in the consumption of such raw materials as crude oil, steel and nonferrous metals. China already accounted for 30% of the world steel consumption last year. Analysts said that global steel consumption increased 8.9% last year, an 81.6% of which resulted from a high rise in China's steel product consumption. Nonferrous metal consumption in the world was also found to have been led by China, which contributed 76.8% to global copper demand growth, 44.5% to aluminum demandgrowth and 141.8% to nickel demand growth, respectively, last year, and such a trend is expected to continue in the future. The Trade Research Institute of the Korea International Trade Association said like this in its recent report on the analysis of China's influence on global economy. China's economy maintained a high growth of 9.1% in 2003 andits contribution to the world's GDP growth stood at 14.8% last year just same as Japan, according to the report. China is exerting a great influence on a rise in the global trade. It ranked second last year in making contribution to a rise in the world's exports, marking the contribution rate of 11%, after the EU that registered 42.6%.China posted 11.5% of its contribution rate for the world's import growth, surpassing the U.S. and Japan to a large extent. In crude oil consumption, China exceeded Japan last year, emerging as the world's largest oil-consuming country. Global crude oil consumption increased 1.5% last year and China accounted for 31.5% of it, outpacing the U.S. and Japan. steelkmj@snmnews.com