PARIS, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Second Ministerial Meeting of the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity was held Thursday in Paris, France.
Among those present at the gathering was a Chinese delegation led by Assistant Commerce Minister Ren Hongbin.
Excess capacity is a universal, periodical and structural issue in economic development, and Western developed countries also had serious steel excess capacity in history, the Chinese delegation clearly noted at the meeting.
The fundamental reason for this round of steel excess capacity is the global economic recession and dropping steel demands caused by the 2008 international financial crisis, the delegation said.
With the global economic recovery and various measures taken by China and other key steel-making economies, the global steel excess capacity has been substantially alleviated, it said.
China is the only member in the Forum that had taken concrete measures in capacity reduction. In 2016 and 2017, China cut about 120 million tons of steel capacity with a market- and law-based approach, the delegation stressed.
In this process, China has resettled 272,000 steel workers, more than any of the total steel employment in the United States, Japan or the European Union (EU), the Chinese delegation said. In 2018, China will further reduce 30 million tons of crude steel capacity.
China has paid a dear price and achieved clear progress in steel capacity reduction, and greatly contributed to the recovery of global steel industry, according to the delegation.
Since 2017, the supply-demand relationship in the Chinese steel market has remarkably improved, with the steel price returning to a reasonable range and steelmakers gaining steadily-increasing profit.
Thanks to China's efforts to reduce capacity, global economic recovery and other factors, global steel market has improved greatly and steel price has been recovering.
As an important member of the Forum, the delegation said, China has been actively involved in its processes, participating in its past meetings of different scope, providing all steel capacity data and policy information available, present at various rounds of consultations for this year's draft ministerial report, and offering many constructive views.
Upholding the principle of "equal-footed and voluntary consultation and consensus", China stands ready to strengthen communication and cooperation with all parties to put G20 Summits' consensus into practice, jointly take concrete measures to cut excess capacity under the principle of "global challenge, collective solutions" and promote the stable recovery and healthy growth of the global steel sector, it said.
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