China's steel is playing an increasingly important role in regional economic cooperation

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has created a stage for the optimization of the steel industry chain and supply chain, and the vision of "openness and sharing, prosperity and change" is becoming a reality. On October 26, the 3rd RCEP Steel Development Forum 2023 was held in Wuzhou, Guangxi. Qu Xiuli, vice president of China Iron and Steel Association, believes that after decades of continuous development, China's steel industry has ranked first in the world in steel output for 26 consecutive years, making positive contributions to global economic development and prosperity. At the same time, she stressed that RCEP has brought opportunities and challenges for China's steel industry to better integrate into and serve the global market, and the domestic and foreign market environment faced by the steel industry in the later stage is more severe and complex.

2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will enter into full force for the 15 signatories on June 2. Qu Xiuli said that China's steel is the "half of the world's steel", the world economy is inseparable from China, the world's steel is inseparable from China, and China's steel development needs international solidarity and cooperation. After the RCEP comes into full effect, due to the relaxation of market access will bring more fierce international competition, Chinese iron and steel enterprises should fully grasp the RCEP full entry into force and the "Belt and Road" to expand and extend the opportunity in the world, and all member countries to achieve co-construction, win-win and sharing.

At present, global steel production has entered the Asian era, and China, as a major steel country and steel power, continues to dominate the development of the global steel industry and is playing an increasingly important role in regional economic cooperation. Zhang Jianhua, deputy director of the Department of Foreign Investment of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that China's steel industry should conscientiously implement the "Belt and Road" initiative and make good use of the RCEP platform. The first is to strengthen upstream and downstream cooperation with Belt and Road countries and RCEP member countries to strengthen the resilience of the industrial chain; The second is to promote the intelligent and green development of overseas steel projects, and be the leader of the green and low-carbon process of the global steel industry; the third is to strengthen international standardization work and improve international influence; Fourth, we need to improve the risk prevention and control mechanism and effectively prevent all kinds of risks faced in international cooperation.

In fact, with the development of internationalization, benchmarking against the world's top has promoted the substantial improvement of China's steel technology and equipment, management and product quality, and in the current context of economic globalization, openness and sharing have become an important way to promote the common prosperity of all countries. Qu Xiuli believes that with the full implementation of RCEP, tariff and non-tariff barriers will be reduced, which is conducive to reducing the cost of China's steel import and export and promoting more smooth steel import and export trade. At the same time, the full entry into force of RCEP will enhance the connectivity of "two markets and two resources" at home and abroad, which will help improve the guarantee level of raw fuel supply such as iron ore and coking coal in China's iron and steel industry, effectively use new energy in member countries, and promote the coordinated development of green energy and green steel.

According to reports, the crude steel output in the RCEP region exceeds 1.2 billion tons, and the apparent consumption of crude steel exceeds 1.1 billion tons, making it the world's largest steel production and sales region, accounting for more than 65% of the world's total; In terms of steel trade, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Malaysia are net exporters of steel, and other RCEP members are net importers. According to Zhou Mi, a researcher at the Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, RCEP has created space for the steel industry to optimize its development and enhance its sustainability, but it also poses challenges. In order to grasp the opportunities and cope with the challenges, the first is to understand and read the RCEP agreement and plan the development path in combination with its own strategy; the second is to effectively extend the industrial chain and continue to improve the added value of products and services; Third, we should pay attention to climate change measures and innovate to seek a sustainable development model; Fourth, adapt to the multicultural environment, do a good job of communication, and reduce the risk of transnational operation.

Zhang Longqiang, deputy secretary-general of China Iron and Steel Association, secretary of the Party Committee and president of the Metallurgical Industry Information Standards Research Institute, believes that the steel industry in the RCEP region will present three characteristics. First, RCEP will be the centennial focus of global steel. RCEP is the world's largest population, the largest economic and trade scale, the most potential for development of free trade area, the world's largest steel production and consumption area, steel development potential is huge, as the global steel center of gravity will continue for a hundred years; Second, the RCEP steel industry has obvious competitive advantages. Among the member countries, China, Japan and South Korea are leading the world in the competitiveness of high value-added products, the ten ASEAN countries have strong competitiveness in steel production costs, Australia has obvious advantages in iron ore and coking coal resources, and RCEP has the conditions to build the most competitive steel industry chain; Third, RCEP will become a complementary and mutually beneficial steel industry ecosystem. RCEP members are diverse (developed and developing countries), and the development stage, industrial structure, and energy resources are complementary, which will help to build a comprehensive, modern, high-quality, mutually beneficial steel industry ecosystem.

Regarding the impact of RCEP on the steel industry, Zhong Shaoliang, Deputy Director General of worldsteel and chief representative of the Beijing Representative Office, shared several views: first, the free trade system between countries and regions is complex, and the FTAs between them are more diverse and messy; Second, the existing multilateral free trade relations among RCEP member countries are complex; Third, the tariff concession of RCEP is not higher than that of other existing FTAs, and the impact is limited in the short term; Fourth, other potential free trade agreements may change the impact of RCEP, such as the CPTPP; Fifth, the FTA does not prohibit anti-dumping and countervailing duties; Sixth, RCEP member countries are in different stages of steel development, that is, some are in the rising period, some are in the saturation period, and some are in the declining period; Seventh, the actual impact of RCEP on the steel industry remains to be seen.

The 3rd RCEP Iron and Steel Development Forum 2023 is co-sponsored by the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Wuzhou Municipal People's Government, and Metallurgical Industry Information Standards Research Institute, and co-organized by Wuzhou Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, Wuzhou Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Wuzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Wuzhou Investment Promotion Bureau, Wuzhou Industrial Revitalization Headquarters Office, Guangxi Yingji Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., and World Metal Herald. Wuzhou Xinfeng Special Steel Co., Ltd., Wuzhou Yima Hardware Products Co., Ltd., Guangxi Beigang New Materials Co., Ltd., Guangxi Shenglong Metallurgical Co., Ltd., Guangxi Guixin Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd., Guangxi Guigang Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd., Southern Manganese Industry Group Co., Ltd. and many other Guangxi iron and steel enterprises have given strong support, a total of more than 200 representatives from government departments at all levels, iron and steel enterprises, industry associations, universities, metallurgical construction enterprises, traders, financial institutions and other units participated, and the live broadcast attracted nearly 30,000 people's attention.

Source: China Industry News Network