A number of steel industry support policies are expected to be introduced

In the first half of this year, large and medium-sized steel enterprises made a profit of 7.48 billion yuan, an increase of 4.276 billion yuan over the same period last year, but their main business still lost 0.66 billion yuan and has lost 11 quarters in a row. In the face of this report card, Zhang Changfu, vice president and secretary-general of the China Iron and Steel Association, said that the iron and steel industry should take the initiative to adapt to the new normal and new changes.

The reporter learned from the second information conference in 2014 held by the China Iron and Steel Association (China Iron and Steel Association) yesterday that in the first half of the year, the high level of fixed asset investment slowed down, especially the area of new real estate construction fell sharply by 16.4 year-on-year, making steel consumption It is difficult to increase substantially. In the first half of the year, the country's apparent consumption of crude steel increased by only 0.4. At the same time, in terms of exports, although the overseas economy recovered, in the first half of the year, steel exports only increased by 1.2 year-on-year. The reason was that the export of mechanical and electrical products, which consume a lot of steel, fell by 1.6 year-on-year. Although the main business has lost 11 quarters in a row, the steel industry is not all bad news. At least the economic benefits of the industry have begun to improve month on month. Data show that in the first half of the year, large and medium-sized iron and steel enterprises achieved sales revenue of 1813.054 billion billion yuan, an increase of 1.12 percent over the same period last year, profits and taxes of 45.414 billion billion yuan, an increase of 11.62 percent over the same period last year, and profits of 7.48 billion billion yuan, an increase of 4.276 billion yuan over the same period last year. The cumulative loss was 28.41 per cent, down 7.95 percentage points from the same period last year, while the sales profit margin was 0.41 per cent, up 0.23 percentage points from the same period last year.

In addition, the industry's fixed asset investment year-on-year decline is also a positive. In the first half of the year, the steel industry completed a 7.08 year-on-year decline in fixed asset investment, which was the industry with the largest decline in investment among the 56 sub-banks in the country. The decline in investment will inhibit the increase in production capacity in the next two or three years.

In view of the fact that the industry as a whole is still in a difficult situation, Zhang Changfu revealed at the press conference that steel enterprises are studying the reform of mixed ownership. In the next step, the State Council may issue documents to deepen the reform of state-owned enterprises. Policies for state-owned enterprises to solve the social and historical burdens are also being formulated. When the time is ripe, the reform of state-owned enterprises in the steel industry will also be promoted. On the other hand, the China Iron and Steel Association is cooperating with the finance and taxation departments to carry out research on some major fiscal and taxation policy issues, such as export tax rebate, resource tax from volume to ad valorem and other tax policies are being studied.