The pressure of imported products is great, and the steel production and marketing system is affected.
Since the second half of 1998, with the emergence of buyer's market and the influence of sluggish domestic demand, the unreasonable structure of steel industry and products in China has gradually emerged. China has a large iron and steel output and many production enterprises. The direct consequence of the unbalanced product structure is that the total output of iron and steel greatly exceeds the market demand. Prices plummeted, enterprises were generally underemployed, and the production capacity was seriously overcapacity. However, to make matters worse for domestic steel mills and steel industry, a large number of foreign steel products have continuously entered the domestic market, which has impacted the production and marketing system of steel products and steel enterprises in China.
According to customs statistics, the steel imports of 1999 increased significantly in the first quarter, which is rare in recent years. From January to March,/kloc-imported 3.58 million tons, valued at 654.38+0.6 billion US dollars, up by 465.438+0% and 654.38+05.5% respectively, of which general trade imports were 265.438+. At present, the main sources of imported steel are Japanese, Korean and China Taiwan Province Province (mainly H-beam), with a total of 2.04 million tons, accounting for 57% of the total imports. Followed by Russia, Kazakhstan and other Eastern European countries, accounting for 36%. Imported varieties mainly focus on hot-rolled plates, cold-rolled plates, small profiles, wires, stainless steel and other varieties, accounting for 84.7% of the total import. This trend of relatively concentrated import sources and varieties has aroused great concern in the industry.
Experts generally believe that foreign steel enterprises are optimistic about the potential capacity of China steel market. In particular, last year, China increased its investment in infrastructure construction and identified a number of new construction projects in railway, highway and electric power construction, which will inevitably bring about an increase in steel demand. Foreign manufacturers want to seize this opportunity to seize the China market.
In addition, the existing types of steel production in China are seriously unreasonable, and some products, such as cold-rolled plates, especially thin plates below 1 mm, cannot meet the demand in terms of output and quality, which undoubtedly leaves a gap for foreign steel to enter the market.
Moreover, the price of domestic steel is unreasonable and the price is generally higher than that of imported steel. For example, the domestic production of cold-rolled plates below 3 mm is 3 100 yuan per ton, and the 2.5 mm hot-rolled plates are about 2,300 yuan; Russia, the quality is almost the same, the specifications are the same, as long as 2700 yuan per ton, and the hot rolled plate is l900 yuan. The cold-rolled plate produced by Little Bird Crane is 2600 yuan, and the hot-rolled plate is 1.850 yuan. The quality is better than that of domestic cold-rolled plate, and it is only 3 1 000 yuan per ton. This disparity in price, on the one hand, shows that the domestic steel cost is too high, on the other hand, it may be that South Korea, Russia and other countries cut their domestic steel stocks without considering the cost. This kind of paper was collected and sorted by Paper League http://www.LWLM.Com and dumped at low prices in China.
At the beginning of this year, in order to adjust the steel production structure, the state put forward measures to limit production and adjust the market, that is, to reduce the steel output last year by10/0 million tons, that is10 million tons. As early as 1994, the policy of "promoting by production" was determined in China's iron and steel industry, but a large number of steel products were imported, especially ordinary steel products with large domestic output and oversupply, which greatly reduced the role of the policy of "promoting by production". For example, in the first quarter of this year, 837,000 tons of ordinary bars and hot rolled plates below 3 mm were imported, accounting for 23.4% of the total steel imports, which was 1.3 times that of the same period last year. If this trend continues, it is bound to make the policy of "promoting production" fail.
The direct victims of the sharp increase in foreign steel imports are domestic steel enterprises. Because a large number of foreign steel products hit the market, the domestic steel market is in a state of price inversion. The production cost of steel mills is higher than the ex-factory price of steel, and the ex-factory price of steel mills is higher than the market transaction price. For example, in the Guangzhou Steel market, the price of Angang 1-2mm cold-rolled plate is 3 100 yuan per ton, while TISCO and Angang are 2,300 yuan per ton, which is nearly 10% lower than the breakeven price in April last year, but nobody cares. The price inversion leads to more losses in production, but if the production capacity is left idle, it will not only increase the cost, but also cause the negative growth of asset appreciation rate, thus falling into the strange phenomenon that the more production, the more losses, and the more production. In order to promote the iron and steel industry to get out of the trough as soon as possible, the metallurgical industry began to implement the measures of combining steel production limitation with import control, brought the import volume of processing trade into total control, and formulated corresponding policies and regulations; Carry out anti-dumping investigations on iron and steel products with extremely low import prices such as Russia, Ukraine and South Korea, and file a case as soon as possible to curb the impact of low-priced imported iron and steel products on China's market and change the current unbalanced structure of iron and steel products.
In order to give priority to the digestion of domestic steel products, the relevant departments have recently examined and approved the issuance of import licenses (that is, approvals) more strictly. According to the latest information of steel business in related industries, in order to avoid importing too much steel, affecting the sales of steel produced by domestic steel mills and alleviating the unemployment problem of employees, the import approval documents for steel bars, wires and billets were changed to strict.
According to traders who import steel, the relevant departments have stipulated that the import of steel bars and wire rods should be limited to 50,000 tons in the second quarter of this year, and decided that the approved quantity should not exceed the previous tonnage. If it is found to be imported without a license, it will be regarded as smuggling and will be severely punished.
On the other hand, the state is considering taking some administrative measures to control the import of all steel products, especially the steel products that China can be self-sufficient. For example, hot-rolled steel coils are being closely observed at present, and there are plans to limit the import of hot-rolled steel coils by 7 million tons this year.