The "first in the world" for steel exports is not worth the candle

Regardless of the amount of exports or the amount of exports, China has become the largest exporter of steel. This major change in China’s steel trade this year reflects both the achievements of China’s steel industry and the worrying contradictions and problems in the development of the steel industry. It is imperative to introduce relevant policies to standardize steel exports, and to promote the reform through deepening reforms. The transformation and upgrading of the steel industry.

In the first three quarters of consecutive years, China’s steel exports reached a record high. China’s total production of crude steel was 618 million tons and steel was 839 million tons, up 2.34% and 5.02% respectively over the same period of last year. China’s crude steel production this year is expected to be 826 million tons. Compared with the single-digit growth in crude steel production, this year, China’s steel export growth has been unusually rapid. In September and October, China’s steel exports exceeded 8.5 million tons, respectively 8.51 million tons and 8.55 million tons, an increase of 73.1% and 68.6% over the same period of the previous year, and steel exports reached a record high. From January to October, steel exports totaled 7390. Ten thousand tons. Since 2000, China’s steel exports accounted for the world’s total steel exports, rising from 4.8% to more than 7% in 2004 and 2005, and rising to more than 15% in 2013 and forecast to remain above 15% for the full year this year. .

At present, the major reasons for the significant increase in China's steel product exports and the persistently high proportion of domestic steel products are the serious overcapacity in the domestic steel industry, the stagnant domestic demand, and the lack of demand in the market. China's steel companies have to open up new international markets; The competitiveness of steel products has increased, especially in the case of sheet metal products, and most of them have been imported and replaced. Thirdly, the output of steel mills has been too high this year, and the inventories have grown. The domestic steel market prices have continued to fall, while the prices of steel products in Europe and the United States have declined less. For example, the price of hot-rolled coils in China fell by 17%, while European prices dropped by 13%, while the price in the United States only fell by 5%, and the spread was between 100-200 US$/ton. Due to the economic recovery in Europe and the United States this year, the demand for steel products has increased, and the demand for steel products in the United States and the European Union has increased significantly. At the same time, the infrastructure construction of emerging economies has accelerated, which has also stimulated the export of steel products in China.

Deterioration of trading conditions for steel products. China currently eliminates export tax rebates for Pu-Steel, which does not contain alloyed carbon steel. Export duty rates for low value-added construction steels such as rebar and ordinary wire rods are 15%, while special steel alloys are exported. Products can enjoy the corresponding tax reduction preferential policies (customs tariff regulations, the boron content of 0.0008% and above steel products can be reported by the alloy steel, you can enjoy the export tax rebate policy), tax rebate rate of 5% -13%. In recent years, some exporting companies have added boron to Pu Steel, which has transformed the export of alloyed steel products, and has thus obtained export tax rebates. Everyone in the steel industry is well aware of the fact that the addition of trace amounts of boron to Pu-Steel to fill the "unspoken rules" of special steel exports has been criticized by some import destination countries.

In addition, the spread of steel import and export spreads widened and the terms of trade deteriorated. Since 2014, the average unit price of China's steel exports has decreased month by month. The average price of steel imports in the first three quarters of 1246 US dollars / ton, while the average export price of 783 US dollars / ton, the difference between imports and exports expanded to 463 US dollars / ton, the spread for nine consecutive months showed an expansion trend. The decline in the average unit price of steel exports is not only a factor in the reduction of raw material costs, but what is more important is that Chinese steel producers often sell certain steel products at low prices in the international market. The technical content of China's steel export products is lower than that of imported products. This kind of iron and steel product structure, which is less advanced, has exerted great pressure on China's resources and environment. It can be said that at present, China's steel exports are still characterized by large scale, low profits, and weak international competitiveness, and the terms of trade are quite unfavorable.

In addition, the anti-dumping efforts of steel companies and governments in various countries on China's steel exports are increasing.

Camera Adjustment Industrial Policy First, the taxation number of boron-containing alloy steels will be further refined, and the camera will adjust the export tax rebate policy for steel products. It is understood that most of the profits from export tax rebates for alloy steel in China are divided by foreign companies and middlemen, and the share of profits obtained by Chinese steel production enterprises is very small. As China's steel export volume continues to climb, it is expected that the iron and steel export trade friction will continue to increase at a later stage. Therefore, the taxation number of boron-containing alloy steels should be further subdivided, additional tax numbers should be added, and preparations should be made to adjust and change the tax rebate policy. At the same time, in order to reduce some unnecessary anti-dumping and countervailing trade disputes, supervision should be strengthened to reduce irregular export. , And urge China's steel companies to address the issue of exports of boron steel, and actively increase the added value of steel exports.

Second, raise the threshold of steel exports, reduce the pressure on resources and the environment, adhere to the principle that the development of the iron and steel industry to meet the domestic demand is unshakeable. In 2013, China's crude steel was 779 million tons, accounting for 48.5% of the global crude steel output of 1.606 billion tons. Although steel exports can partially ease the pressure on China’s domestic steel production capacity and promote the coordination between domestic and international steel markets, China’s iron and steel industry can’t abandon the principle of satisfying domestic demand in the face of increasingly tight resource and environmental constraints. Industry cannot take the export-oriented development path. At present, the new iron and steel production per ton of steel in the advanced technology of the international steel industry is also about 4 tons. At the same time, 2 cubic meters of carbon dioxide are emitted for each ton of steel produced. China’s dependence on imported iron ore is as high as 70%. If China's steel exports this year are around 85 million tons, then only steel exports will exceed the annual crude steel production in India in 2013, and it will also be close to last year's US crude steel production. Last year, China’s direct net steel export volume was 46.8 million tons, taking into consideration that China’s steel exports through indirect trade last year reached 56.7 million tons. In 2013, China’s net steel exports were as high as 103 million tons. The export of steel is equal to the export of resources and raw materials, and also equals the export of clean air. It is not worthwhile for China to become the world's largest steel exporter.

Finally, in the form of the formation of industrial investment, the strategy of going out has been actively used to resolve excess capacity. As steel is in a state of overcapacity on a global scale, the competition among steel and steel companies in the steel trade is increasingly fierce. It is not a long-term solution to rely on exports to resolve excess capacity. In the long term, to get rid of the adverse cycle of “increased production, reduced prices, increased export prices, and increased production” in China’s steel industry, the fundamental way out is to promote industrial restructuring, eliminate outdated production capacity, change product mix, and increase production of high value-added products. Industrial concentration. At the same time, the transfer of some of China's steel production capacity abroad, promote the strategic transformation of China's steel industry development, from large-scale import of iron ore, coking coal and Other steel smelting raw materials, to a large number of imported steel products, promote China's GDP energy consumption and environmental improvement. In the current situation that the domestic steel industry has almost zero profit, and the profitability of large and medium-sized steel companies is not good, steel companies or steel companies and financial companies should be encouraged to use domestic investment forms to drive domestic production through incremental transfer of production capacity. The stock restructuring of iron and steel companies will promote the advantageous production capacity of the domestic steel industry to be transferred to ASEAN and Latin America with the infrastructure construction needs in a variety of ways such as investment, leasing, and investment, so as to achieve mutual benefits and win-win results.