The steel industry, which has undergone successive adjustments, may usher in a period of policy vacuum.
On September 15, Luo Tiejun, Deputy Director of the Department of Raw Materials Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, revealed at the 2010 (fifth) International Steel Market Forum that “With the elimination of backwardness, mergers and reorganizations, and the With regard to the stability and continuity of existing policies, we suggest that the steel industry no longer issue new stimulus policies or restraint policies."
During the meeting, Huang Guohua, Director of the Statistical Analysis Division of the General Statistics Department of the General Administration of Customs of China, also stated that it is unlikely that China will further increase its export tariffs in the short-term if it exports steel (4269, -62.00, - 1.43%).
Some analysts believe that the regulatory slowdown in the short term is conducive to the full release of existing policies, and through the observation of the effects of periodical policies, the future regulatory policies will be more targeted.
Regulatory slowdown
Since the beginning of this year, the steel industry has experienced continuous adjustment and control.
In June, the General Office of the State Council issued "Several Opinions on Further Strengthening Energy-saving and Emission-reducing Efforts to Accelerate Structural Adjustment of the Steel Industry." The "Opinions" emphasized that "by the end of 2011, we will no longer approve and file any steel projects that increase production capacity. The National Development and Reform Commission took the lead in organizing the clean-up of steel projects that have been built since 2005."
In July, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology promulgated the "Standard Conditions for Production and Operation of the Iron and Steel Industry," and the "Conditions" have made a series of regulations for steel companies in environmental protection, energy consumption, production scale, etc. to promote the standardized management of the steel industry. Since then, the General Office of the State Council has issued opinions on the promotion of mergers and reorganizations in the six major industries such as iron and steel, and the “Opinions†have made it clear that private capital is encouraged to enter the competitive area of ​​monopoly industries, state-owned assets, private capital, and foreign capital are included in the overall merger and reorganization, and iron and steel industries As a focus, we will advance.
However, under the pressure of the steel industry, there is a distortion in the implementation of the policy. In September, in order to fulfill the task of energy saving and emission reduction in some regions in China, the steel industry began to sway a wave of motion-based “limited production and limited production†storms.
Affected by this, the domestic construction steel price hit the biggest weekly gain in the year, but this kind of steel price rise caused by energy-saving emission reductions and power cuts is still a short-lived phenomenon. Moreover, the "passive production cuts" of some steel mills did not make the raw material prices "synchronously follow-up." On the contrary, the resulting expected decline in the supply of steel products has caused severe shocks to the market.
For such a rigid control method, Luo Bingsheng, executive vice chairman of China Iron and Steel Association, once pointed out to the reporter that opposition to the one-size-fits-all approach regarded power cuts as the only way to deal with power-hungry effects. “Long-term cure still needs to eliminate backward tasks. Complete it first."
Some analysts believe that the practice of power cuts is not in line with the nature of the country's energy-saving emission reduction, it will not actually achieve the desired results, and even counterproductive. From an industry perspective, taking mandatory measures to reduce the energy consumption of the steel industry will have a significant effect in the short term, which does not conform to the laws of market development.
In this context, the call for slowing down of steel regulation has gradually picked up and the attitude of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has gradually eased. Luo Tiejun revealed that “With the elimination of backwardness, mergers and reorganizations, and standardization of steel production and operation, further efforts have been made to maintain existing policies. With regard to stability and continuity, we suggest that the steel industry will no longer introduce new stimulus or restraint policies."
Constant tariff
Steel exports have not been calm this year.
When steel exports hit an all-time high, on July 15, 2010, the country significantly reduced the export tax rebates for plates and sections. Statistics show that the measures to cancel partial steel export tax rebates from the middle of July have already achieved results. In June, China exported 5.62 million tons of steel, which fell to 4.55 million tons in July and further dropped to 2.8 million tons in August.