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.