He Wenbo, Secretary of the Party Committee of the China Iron and Steel Association, delivered a keynote speech entitled "Adhere to the new development concept and promote the healthy development and sustainable prosperity of China's steel industry."
He Wenbo said that the two major themes of the development of China's steel industry in the future are green development and intelligent manufacturing. Judging from the achievements of green development in my country's steel industry, a number of energy-saving and environmental protection technologies and indicators have reached the world's advanced level, including the continuous improvement of energy-saving and environmental protection indicators in the steel industry; a number of steel enterprises have made breakthroughs in ultra-low emission transformation; and the co-construction of a green industrial chain in the steel industry has achieved initial results.
In his speech, He Wenbo reviewed the operating characteristics of China's steel industry in 2019. In terms of output, from January to October 2019, the national crude steel output was 829 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 7.4%; pig iron output was 675 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 5.4%; steel output was 1.01 billion tons, a year-on-year increase of 9.8%. In the first half of 2019, my country's steel output continued to rise, and fell in the second half of the year. It is estimated that my country's crude steel output will be 980 million tons in 2019, a year-on-year increase of about 7%.
In terms of imports and exports, my country's imports and exports of steel products decreased in 2019. According to data from the General Administration of Customs, from January to November 2019, my country imported a total of 10.82 million tons of steel, a year-on-year decrease of 11%; and exported a total of 59.66 million tons of steel, a year-on-year decrease of 6.5%. It is estimated that the annual export of steel in 2019 will be around 65 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of about 6%; the import of steel will be around 12 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of about 9%.
In terms of price, my country's steel prices fluctuated narrowly in 2019, and the overall level was lower than the previous year. In 2019, due to the rapid growth of steel production, the domestic steel market generally showed a weak balance. From January to November, the steel price index fell by about 6.3% year-on-year, long products fell by 5.54%, and plates fell by 7.18%. Long products performed better than plates.
In terms of cost, corporate costs rose sharply in 2019, and industry profits fell year-on-year. The main reasons are the sharp rise in the price of imported iron ore, fluctuations in the prices of raw materials such as coal and coke, and increased environmental protection costs. From January to October 2019, the sales revenue of steel enterprises of CISA members was 3.54 trillion yuan, an increase of 11% year-on-year; the sales cost increased by 17.11% year-on-year; the sales profit margin was 4.49%, a decrease of 3.08 percentage points year-on-year. At the end of October, the asset-liability ratio of member steel enterprises was 63.9%, a decrease of 0.72 percentage points year-on-year.
At the same time, He Wenbo pointed out the difficulties in the green development of the steel industry. First, the energy-saving and environmental protection levels of enterprises vary, and a scientific and standardized long-term mechanism for environmental protection has not yet been formed; the green value contained in the large-scale production of the steel industry itself and the development of the circular economy has not yet been correctly evaluated and fully explored; at the technical level, there is still a lack of economically feasible technical solutions for achieving ultra-low emissions nationwide.
Finally, He Wenbo said that in order to further consolidate the results of the supply-side structural reform and maintain the healthy development of the steel industry, the China Iron and Steel Association will cooperate with relevant government departments to do the following work:
First, strictly control the increase in production capacity. Do a good job in the investigation, find out the actual situation of steel production capacity and output, establish a ledger, and stop the relocation of the same city with "drawing a line to imprison" and do not plan with the thinking of a small steel country.
Second, promote enterprises to accelerate ultra-low emission transformation. Recommend good ultra-low emission cases to the industry, do not adopt a "one-size-fits-all" approach to environmental protection, and call for reducing environmental protection taxes for enterprises that have achieved ultra-low emissions, and at the same time provide subsidies to enterprises that meet environmental protection standards.
Third, organize research and implement peak-shifting production of steel and optimize environmental protection classification control plans. Oppose the implementation of "indiscriminate" suspension and restriction of production for enterprises that meet environmental protection standards. It is recommended to control the total amount of regional emissions based on the relative environmental protection level of each enterprise to stagger production and encourage enterprises to increase investment in environmental protection.
Fourth, actively promote mergers and reorganizations in the steel industry and increase industrial concentration. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, there have been 26 mergers and reorganizations in the domestic steel industry, with 93 companies participating (including investment institutions), of which 9 were led by state-owned enterprises and 17 were led by non-state-owned enterprises.
Fifth, effectively promote the research and development of cutting-edge technologies. It is necessary to establish a big data platform for the steel industry, promote the integration of big data in the upstream and downstream of the steel industry chain, strengthen cooperation with third-party big data companies like Mysteel, and better serve the development of the steel industry.
Sixth, call for the improvement of tax and fee reduction policies to effectively reduce the burden on enterprises.
Seventh, we call for a credit policy that both protects and controls credit and removes restrictions on loans to steel companies.