On October 26, 2019, the third ministerial meeting of the Global Forum on Overcapacity of Steel was held in Tokyo, Japan. Li Chenggang, Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Commerce of China, was invited to attend the meeting.
The Chinese side said that China's steel has the largest capacity and the most outstanding contribution. China participates in the forum with sincerity and cooperation. It is the only member of the forum to set the goal of de-capacity and take the initiative to take practical measures to increase production capacity. Since 2016, China has reduced its steel production capacity by more than 150 million tons, which is 114% of the global steel production capacity reduction. To this end, the Chinese only have 280,000 steel workers, which exceeds the total number of steel jobs in the United States, Europe and Japan. At present, the situation of China's steel market has improved significantly, and the utilization rate of crude steel capacity has returned to a reasonable range of more than 80%, which has made great contributions to the healthy development of the global steel industry.
The Chinese side emphasized that
China's steel production mainly meets the needs of the domestic market. Although China's steel production capacity and production account for half of the world's total, China's steel consumption is also close to half of the world's. Currently, 93% of production is used to meet the needs of the domestic market. Steel exports account for only 7% of production, without impacting the international market.
The Chinese side pointed out that overcapacity is a common challenge facing the world. The root cause of overcapacity in this round of steel is the global economic recession and the decline in steel demand caused by the 2008 international financial crisis.
The Chinese side reiterated that the Chinese government's support for the development of the steel industry is in line with WTO rules, does not distort the market, and does not lead to overcapacity.
