How to take a step toward a new low in steel consumption?

This year is a difficult year for the Chinese steel industry. "High productivity, high cost, low growth, low efficiency" coexist, two-way squeeze makes the steel industry a bit "gasp", steel consumption growth has emerged a new low since the new century. The era of “closing money with your eyes closed” is over. How will the steel industry take a step in the era of “low profit”?

The increase in consumption has been the lowest in more than a decade. “This year, the growth rate of steel production has dropped to a low level of 2% to 3%, and the apparent increase in steel consumption is the lowest value in the new century.” The China Steel Association said.

Many people in the industry believe that even if there are signs of boosting macroscopically in 2013, they will be sent out in succession. However, the specific implementation in the steel industry is “not too optimistic”. According to the judgments of many major institutions and experts, the increase in domestic steel production and apparent consumption next year will be only 2% to 3%.

Under the background of "low growth" in steel demand, how to seek breakthrough? The related person in charge of Baosteel Group Metal Company told reporters that “it is impossible to earn money with your eyes closed for a long time, and you must open your eyes to find a new space in the market”.

It is understood that Baosteel Metals is a diversified industrial enterprise under the umbrella of Baosteel Group. Chairman Jia Shulin's words are instructive: In the era of meager profits, steel companies must “guide the steel demand and develop steel use”. For example, in the tin plate project of Baosteel's third phase project, the product design outline at that time was just “tinplate”. However, under the active market development and the inflexible market demand, it will soon be transformed into the production of steel two-piece cans. At present, the specifications can already be “thin and thin”. Since Baosteel developed the first steel two-piece cans in China, it has created a new brand and new industry for steel two-piece cans in China.

The high position in the “winter” investment in the steel industry has entered the “cold winter” and the investment in the steel industry should “cool down”. However, the actual situation is not the case.

According to the latest data released by the China Iron and Steel Association, the steel industry's investment in fixed assets is still at a high level, as the overall steel price fell to near the 1994 level this year. In the first 10 months of this year, the total investment in fixed assets of the domestic steel industry reached 414.27 billion yuan, which has exceeded the level of the previous year. Among them, the investment of non-state-owned steel companies increased by more than 46% year-on-year, while the investment of state-owned enterprises dropped by more than 10% year-on-year.

Analysts at the “I’m Steel” domestic steel information agency said that the steel industry, which already has excess capacity, continues to maintain such a high level of investment, which can only further exacerbate the extent of excess. "To invest in the steel industry today, we must not only open our eyes, we must also turn our eyes flexibly, and carefully look at the industry up and down."

The "emerging growth point" in traditional industries

"China's steel industry is by no means a sunset industry." The head of the China Iron and Steel Association said with certainty. He said that new-type industrialization, informationization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics, as well as comprehensively deepening economic restructuring and innovation-driven development strategies, will provide new space for the development of the steel industry. At the same time, the steel industry must go through structural adjustments and gradual changes for a certain period of time, make preparations for long-term “wintering,” and choose the breakthrough for transformation and upgrading.

Traditional industries like steel, in the course of their moderate and orderly development, are bound to "meet" strategic emerging industries. The reporter learned that Baosteel's "commercialized production of fuel ethanol from the exhaust of steel mills" not only leads the global industry's trend, but is also successfully shaping and maturing. By then, it will become a "benchmark" for the global steel industry's emerging low-carbon strategy.

China's steel companies "going out", and rationally allocate capital, technology, and cost elements across the globe, will also be the "emerging growth point" for steel. However, the “going out” strategy is a comprehensive project that involves a wide range of issues, covering politics, economics, culture, customs, and other levels. Many industry insiders claim that they “continue to experiment, move cautiously, and use their brains to cultivate comprehensive competition. force".