Tokyo, October 26(Suhaihe): 26, steel overcapacity global forum, the third ministerial meeting held in Tokyo, Japan. Assistant Minister of Commerce Lichenggang was invited to attend the meeting.
The Chinese side said that China's steel production capacity is the largest and its contribution is the most outstanding. China has participated in the Forum in a sincere and cooperative spirit. It is the only country among the members of the Forum that has set targets for capacity removal and has taken concrete measures to do so. Since 2016, China has reduced its steel production capacity by more than 150 million tons. To this end, China has placed 280,000 steel workers alone, surpassing the total number of steel jobs in the United States, Europe and Japan. At present, the situation in the Chinese steel market has significantly improved, 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.
China emphasizes that Chinese steel production mainly meets the needs of the domestic market. Although China accounts for half of the world's steel production capacity and production, China's steel consumption is also close to half of the world's total. At present, 93 % of its production is used to meet domestic market demand. Steel exports account for only 7 % of production, and they have not hit the international market. Overcapacity is a common challenge facing the world. The root cause of this steel overcapacity is the global economic recession caused by the international financial crisis in 2008 and the decline in steel demand. Overcapacity is a universal, cyclical and structural problem in economic development. All parties should take an objective, historical and fair view of the global problem of steel overcapacity in the context of the financial crisis, and should follow the principle of "global challenges and collective response" and take joint measures to deal with it.
The measures taken by the Chinese government to support the development of the steel industry comply with WTO rules, do not distort the market, and have not led to overcapacity. From the information on policy measures shared by members of the Forum, many of China's support measures have been or are being taken.
China believes that there are sufficient grounds and reasons for the end of the Forum. The terms of reference of the Forum stipulate that the duration of the Forum shall be three years, renewable on the basis of consensus among all its members. The G20 Osaka Summit did not authorize the extension of the forum, and the ministerial meeting did not reach consensus on the extension of the forum. The Forum thus expired and ended naturally.
China regrets that the Forum was unable to reach consensus on the ministerial report. Nevertheless, China is ready to conduct exchanges and cooperation with relevant parties in an open manner. After the Forum is due to end, issues related to the steel industry can be discussed through existing channels in the industry.