Gov't steps up efforts to control exports: expert
China hopes to see a stable global steel market and does not want encourage large amount of steel exports, Shen Danyang, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), said Tuesday.
Shen's comments came after recent media reports suggested that China's steel exports are too large and not conducive to the stability of the market across the world.
The latest data from China Customs showed domestic steel exports reached 46.28 million tons in the first five months of the year, up 6.4 percent from the same period last year, while steel exports in May increased 3.7 percent from the previous month to approach 9.42 million tons.
But compared to the same period in 2015, the year-on-year growth in steel exports in the first five months of this year is relatively small, according to Shen.
"In 2015, the country's steel exports increased about 30 percent year-on-year from the previous year, while growth was only 6.4 percent during the same period this year, down around 22 percentage points," Shen told a press conference in Beijing. "Steel exports rose in May, but only up 3.7 percent month-on-month."
"Such trend shows that China has been and is making a contribution to the stability of the global steel market instead of the other way around," the spokesperson said, noting that China's steel production is mainly for domestic demand and the country does not encourage large amounts exports.
China has rolled out a series of measures to further control its steel exports, the MOFCOM said.
"For instance, the government levied duties on certain crude steel products in a bid to reduce export," Wang Guoqing, research director at the Beijing Lange Steel Information Research Center, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
The country also lowered the tax refund rate on steel exports and some steel products receive no tax refund, according to the MOFCOM.
China's steel products are competitive in the world market thanks to its price and quality, and many countries need Chinese steel products for infrastructure construction, Wang said.
"It is not reasonable to blame China all the time, and it is the demand in the market that in fact caused the instability in the global steel industry," Wang noted.
The ministry also said that taking protectionist measures against China will not help solve issues related to the global steel sector, otherwise, it will further hit the world trade order.
Instead, the Chinese government will insist on communication and industry cooperation to resolve trade disputes in the world steel industry, according to the MOFCOM.
Moreover, China also imports steel from the world market each year.
In 2015, China imported about 12.78 million tons of steel, such as steel products for auto parts, according to Wang.
