On the day of the visit by Chinese Premier Xi Jinping to the United Kingdom, on Monday, October 19, the European Steel Association (EUROFER) has reiterated its position that China is not a market economy, which it says is a key consideration in light of the massive dumping of Chinese steel in European markets.
“China has an overcapacity of 340 million mt of steel - a third of its total installed steel production capacity. Chinese overcapacity is twice the total production of EU-based steel producers. The Chinese government says it is making efforts to reduce this overcapacity, but progress has been unconvincing thus far. Recent examples have demonstrated that China will not let unviable plants close, even as European installations are extinguished due to unsustainable price pressures,” said Axel Eggert, director general of EUROFER.
In the light of ongoing discussions in the EU as to whether China should receive market economy status (MES), EUROFER echoes calls that the country does not yet meet the necessary technical economic criteria set out by the EU. The Chinese government does not dispute this finding.
Mr Eggert added, “Were MES to be granted, the EU would no longer be able to effectively defend against massively dumped Chinese steel. This dumping is a real threat to the survival of the European steel industry. The recent closures of plants in the UK have had price pressure from dumped Chinese steel as an underlying cause.”
80 percent of all ongoing antidumping and anti-subsidy trade cases are related to China, and a large portion of these are to do with Chinese steel.