Metal Products News
- Consolidation in steel industry to speed up
Date: 11-Oct-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
THE pace of consolidation in the steel industry in China should gather speed by the end of the decade, the chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association said yesterday.
Zhang Xiaogang also forecast obsolete capacity would be removed from the country by then as well.
'By 2010, the iron and steel enterprises will be decreased greatly in number and the production of the top 10 enterprises in the country will make up over 50 percent of gross crude steel production of China,'Zhang said.
Super large-scale iron and steel companies with capacity of over 50 million tons will be formed, said the executive, who is also president of Anshan Iron & Steel Group Corp., parent of China's No. 3 producer, Angang Steel Co.
'By 2010, the obsolete capacity of 100 million tons of pig iron and 55 million tons of raw steel will be eliminated,'Zhang said, adding that this year 35 million tons of obsolete capacity of crude steel should be eliminated.
Anshan Iron and Steel Group is merging gradually with Benxi Iron and Steel Group in a government-directed marriage that will create China's largest firm based on 2006 output, with capacity of around 32 million tons a year.
In another development, European Union steel users sought Tuesday to counter growing calls by many EU steelmakers for trade barriers against imports from China, saying such measures could drive the industry out of the bloc.
European steel executives meeting in Berlin on Monday said they might ask as soon as this month for EU anti-dumping duties against China's fast-growing imports.
But European engineering association Orgalime, representing national groups whose members include big steel consumers such as Siemens, ABB and Alcatel-Lucent plus many smaller firms, said China is now vital to the sector.
Orgalime Secretary General Adrian Harris said it did not make sense to hurt the EU's metalworking and mechanical engineering sector which employs over 7 million Europeans to protect steelmakers who provide only 250,000 jobs in Europe.
'For us matters are simple - our companies must have access to the supplies of steel they need at competitive market conditions,'Harris said in a statement.
'If our traditional suppliers in Europe can provide these, all the better. If not, we need to find alternatives for our companies to be able to continue manufacturing here.'
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