Mittal warns western steel producers against China

Mittal warns western steel producers against China

In a speech today, Lakshmi Mittal, the owner of LNM Group, the world's most global steel producer with steelmaking operations in twelve countries including the US, eastern Europe and India, referred to the growing steel production in China, as very likely to become a serious rival for the steel producers in Europe and the US. Currently, the producers in the Europe and the US are geared to supply the strong demand coming from China, as an alternative to their own rather slow markets. However, the point underlined by Mr. Mittal is that, China is currently building serious amount of capacity in its own country to supply the tremendous demand and the import demand is gradually shifting to raw materials instead of steel products. This can be interpreted as China taking speed in turning into a significant steel exporter, particularly if its economic growth does not keep up with expectations. The steel consumption rate in China is growing at a 20% per year rate and the production capacity has already ascended by one third.