Speaking during his firm's North American Steel 2015 conference, Houlden said CRU expects that demand growth will resume growth, albeit it at a much slower pace, sometime after 2020. Holden said CRU bases that argument on several factors. One factor, he said, is that the draw down rate of housing stock, which is holding back new construction, is expected to slow in the next several years. Meanwhile, urbanization will support new projects. At the same time, the demolition cycle will support replacement demand, Houlden noted, as buildings erected in the 1980s come due for retirement. Also, colleague Lavon Mahadeva, CRU research director, said the heavy equipment and machinery sector will support growth. He said the sector consumes 125 million tons of finished steel, and while the rate of growth has cooled, its steel demands are significant. All told, Houlden said his firm projects Chinese demand growth of 1 percent -- about 85 to 90 million tons of new demand -- past 2020. "China's demand growth, we believe, is not yet a dead dog," Houlden said.