The raw materials industry department of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has held a meeting to discuss the development priorities of the Chinese iron and steel industry during the period of China's 12th five-year plan (2011-15). Wu Xichun, honorary president of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), Yin Ruiyu and Zhang Shourong, members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and some representatives of China's large-scale steel enterprises were invited to attend the meeting, which was chaired by Chen Haiyan, director of the raw materials industry department of the MIIT.
Experts attending the meeting discussed the development goals, development methods and development priorities for the period of the 12th five-year-plan, and agreed that China's iron and steel industry development should be in harmony with domestic economic development goals, should be in line with domestic demand and should meet the needs of domestic economic growth.
The experts made following the recommendations for the development priorities of China's iron and steel industry. First, the industry should strongly restrict inefficient new production capacities, speed up the relocation of urban steel mills and should vigorously promote energy savings and emission reductions in order to foster the development of a sustainable low emissions economy. Second, mergers and acquisitions in the iron and steel industry should adopt improved efficiency as their goal. Third, with China's current steel production technology in general reaching advanced international levels, focus should be placed on developing independent technologies and products. Fourth, key practical technologies need to be diffused further. Fifth, the support possibilities of raw materials and fuel need to be enhanced and highly efficient utilization of both domestic and overseas resources should be achieved. Sixth, attention must be paid to the application and spread of information technology in the steel industry in order help to promote industrial upgrading.