CANACERO: Chinese overproduction a threat to steel industry, Posco ceo says

Steel companies around the world have been threatened by overproduction in China, which at 230 million tonnes represents about 36% of the total global production capacity.

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“The overproduction of steel products compared with global steel demand is worrying,” Posco ceo Chung Joon-Yang said last week at the 2nd Mexican Iron & Steel Conference (Canacero) in Cancún.

Statistics from the World Steel Assn for 2012, he explained, “show that the total production of crude steel is about 2.05 billion tonnes, but demand only reached 1.4 billion tonnes, so there is an overproduction of 640 million tonnes […] especially from China”.

Global steel capacity increased by 3.8% but steel consumption rose by only 3% between March and September this year, Joon-Yang noted.

To combat this problem, “the governments of steel-producing countries must eliminate direct or indirect subsidies, and let the market do its part considering quality, price, service and responsibility to the environment,” he concluded.