Since the beginning of this year, China's steel demand has shown a weak trend, but steel production is still rising, and the steel industry capacity management is facing new challenges. "At present, the overall output of the steel industry has returned to the level before the supply-side structural reform." Zheng Yuchun, deputy director of the Economic Development Research Center of the metallurgical industry, said at the summit forum on the development of China's metal plate industry held recently that the daily production of steel in China in March this year almost hit a record high level, and the current Chinese steel industry as a whole presents a "weak demand, increased production, falling prices, and a double decline in cost and profit". According to the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to September this year, the country produced 795 million tons of crude steel, an increase of 1.7%; 675 million tons of pig iron was produced, up 2.8% year-on-year; It produced 1.029 billion tons of steel, an increase of 6.1%, and the growth rate of steel production was higher than that of pig iron and crude steel. In this context of industry supply and demand, the overall efficiency of the industry has declined.
According to China Steel Association statistics, in the first three quarters of this year, the key statistics of steel enterprises operating income of 4.66 trillion yuan, down 1.74%; Total profit was 62.1 billion yuan, down 34.11% year-on-year; The sales profit margin was 1.33%, down 0.66 percentage points year-on-year. Corporate losses reached nearly 40%. Listed steel enterprises, although some steel enterprises from July to September profit improved, but the first three quarters of the industry as a whole is still in a downturn. Baosteel's net profit in the first three quarters was 8.35 billion yuan, down 11.77% year-on-year; The net profit loss of Masteel was about 1.598 billion yuan, down 340.48% year-on-year; Chongqing Iron and Steel net profit loss of 590 million yuan, the loss increased by 118.31%; Bayi Iron and Steel net profit loss of about 739 million yuan, the loss increased by 21.5%. "In the first three quarters of this year, the equivalent apparent consumption of crude steel was 731 million tons, down 1.5% year-on-year, and the decrease was about 10.965 million tons. Although the amount appears insignificant before the huge production, it is precisely this 10 million tons of steel that has a huge impact on the market." Zheng Yuchun pointed out that this reflects that the structural adjustment of the industry is still far from being in place, the enterprise management system faces the need to adapt to the new situation, and the price formation mechanism also needs to be improved. Zhao Xizi, honorary president of the All-China Metallurgical Chamber of Commerce, mentioned in his speech at the China Metal plate Industry Development Summit Forum that the current steel production capacity in China is relatively excess, and the key is to solve the problem of consumption channels. At present, the reason for the decline in steel consumption is mainly related to the significant decline in the indicators of the real estate industry, at the same time, the overall growth rate of machinery, automobile and other industries has slowed down, resulting in the market demand of the main steel industry is less than expected, which has an impact on the sales volume of the steel industry.
Production capacity governance challenges should be how to deal with, in Zhao Xizi's view, China's steel production capacity growth has no room to continue to rise, the future will gradually reduce the development. In order to further improve the efficient utilization of production capacity, the first is to improve the quality, the second is to improve the concentration through merger and reorganization, and the third is to form an industrial park to enhance the comprehensive competitiveness. It is worth noting that in order to promote the smooth operation of the steel industry, in August this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission and other seven departments jointly issued the "Iron and steel industry steady growth work plan", according to the "power from both ends of supply and demand, focus on stable operation, expand demand, promote reform, help enterprises, strong momentum" work ideas, targeted goals and measures. The plan puts forward four work measures: implementing technological innovation and transformation actions to stimulate new momentum for high-quality development; We will upgrade steel consumption and strive to expand steel demand. Implement actions to improve supply capacity to ensure stable and efficient operation of the industry; We will carry out actions to cultivate leading enterprises and increase the concentration of the steel industry. For improving the concentration of the steel industry, the plan proposes to encourage steel enterprises to carry out cross-regional and cross-ownership mergers and reorganizations, and change the "small scattered" situation of the steel industry in some areas. For steel enterprises that have completed substantive mergers and reorganizations, we will study and give greater support to capacity replacement policies. "For the development of the steel industry, while playing the role of the government, it is more important to play the decisive role of the market in allocating resources." Zheng Yuchun believes that mergers and acquisitions can help the industry improve efficiency, and mergers and acquisitions must have a market forcing mechanism. "On the whole, the healthy development of the domestic economy is an important support to ensure social stability, and the effect of the policy will continue to emerge in the coming period." Zheng Yuchun said that with the continuous implementation of various policies, the demand situation next year will be slightly better than this year, and the apparent consumption of crude steel is expected to increase slightly.
