"In the future, China will promote the use of steel structures in buildings and greatly increase the proportion of steel structures when rebuilding shanty areas and dilapidated houses and implementing anti-seismic housing projects," he said.
Currently, only 5.6 percent of Chinese buildings use steel structures. China plans to increase that proportion to over 20 percent, which would need an extra 20 million tons of steel products a year.
On the international level, China's Belt and Road Initiative with a vision to strengthen connectivity and infrastructure development of countries along the route will fuel demand for steel, and delivered win-win outcomes through social and economic development, Zhang said.
US, EU EFFORTS: BLAMING CHINA, USING PROTECTIONIST MEASURES
Besides China, steel-producing countries and regions like the United States and the European Union have also been plagued by overcapacity to different degrees.
However, the EU and United States seem to be focusing their efforts on blaming China and frequently employing trade protectionist measures.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman jointly issued a statement after the high-level steel meeting in Brussels, accusing China of preventing a global solution.
"Unless China starts to take timely and concrete actions to reduce its excess production and capacity in industries including steel, and works with others to ensure that future government actions do not once again contribute to excess capacity, the fundamental structural problems in the industry will remain and affected governments -- including the United States -- will have no alternatives other than trade action to avoid harm to their domestic industries and workers," their statement warned.
The world's second largest steel producer, the EU, echoed the United States on this perception. Ignoring that the competitive position of the European steel sector has deteriorated significantly in recent years, the EU attributes their difficulties on China and trading practices.
"Excess production of steel in third countries such as China has increased exports, depressed prices, and given rise to an unprecedented wave of, distorting the global level playing field," the EU Trade policy department said after the meeting.
Last month, an European Commission report set out how the European steel sector could overcome its serious challenges, largely due to global overcapacity.
The report, named "Steel: Preserving sustainable jobs and growth in Europe," contained new short-term measures to strengthen the EU's trade remedy measures to restrict steel imports.
The EU is already imposing a record number of trade remedy measures. The bloc has over 100 trade defense measures in place, 37 of them targeting imports of steel products, 16 of which are from China.
On Feb. 12 this year, the EU opened three new anti-dumping investigations on steel products originating in China. On the same day, the EU imposed provisional anti-dumping duties on another steel product from China and Russia. Currently, there are ongoing investigations for 10 steel products, six of which concern China.
CHINESE STEEL MAINLY FOR DOMESTIC USE
In reality, Chinese steel products make up a tiny proportion of U.S and EU steel imports. As a major producer and consumer of steel, China's steel products are mainly for domestic use.
"In recent years, 85-95 percent of steel produced by China have been for domestic consumption. China's annual steel consumption accounts for 45 percent of the global total," Zhang said.
China used to be a net importer of steel before 2005 and is still the fifth-largest importer of steel in the world.
"China imported the equivalent of 13.57 million tons of crude steel in 2015," he said, adding that China has thus contributed to the stable development of the global steel industry.
Experts have said as steel excess capacity has become an acute global challenge, governments and steel-related organizations should take collective action to address the situation.
All steel-producing, consuming and trading economies and raw material supply economies should step up communication and policy coordination and join hands in the endeavor to tackle the challenge of steel overcapacity.
