Speaking on April 19 at Boao Forum Asia, a regional political and business summit, Baosteel Group chairman Xu Lejiang stated that the structural contradictions in China's steel industry have been made fully evident against the background of the financial crisis, and that the time has come for structural adjustment of the steel industry in China.
Mr. Xu remarked that over the past five years when China's steel prices were on a rising trend the country accumulated substantial production capacity; at the same time steel exports were up to 57 million mt, with 40 million mt of indirect exports in the form of automobiles, household appliances, and ships. Since then, as a result of the financial crisis, Mr. Xu said, both direct and indirect steel exports have been curbed, highlighting the problem of overcapacity, making structural adjustment of China's steel industry a must. Without the elimination of dated, high-pollution capacities, healthy development will not be possible for the Chinese steel industry, the Baosteel chairman stressed.