At a recent steel industry forum in China, several specialists indicated that in the past decade the Chinese steel industry experienced rapid growth, with crude steel output increasing by 21.1 percent per year on average; however, they also said that the rapid growth had also brought problems. The consensus reached was that the Chinese steel industry is expected to undergo further restructuring in China's 12th five-year plan period (2011-15), with the focus on the formation of several large steelmakers with increased international competitiveness.
Hou Yunchun, deputy manager of the Development Research Centre of China's State Council, stated that Chinese industry should utilize large steelmakers' abilities in terms of resource distribution, industrial restructuring and so on, to improve the competitiveness of the domestic steel industry. As an example, he cited the restructuring of Tangshan Iron & Steel and Handan Iron & Steel by Hebei Iron & Steel Group, which he pointed out had obvious positive effects for the companies involved.
Meanwhile, Jiang Zhenghua, vice chairman of the National People's Congress of China, stated that the Chinese steel industry needed to improve its efficiency and explore the high-end market.