China remained the world's number one producer of stainless
steel last year, taking up more than one quarter of the global
output, figures with the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA)
have shown.
China churned out some 7.2 million tonnes of stainless steel in
2007, or more than one quarter of some 28 million tonnes of global
output, said chairman of the stainless steel council under the CISA
Li Cheng. China overtook Japan as the world's biggest stainless
steel producer in 2006. Its alloy steel output hit 16.6 million
tonnes last year, up 21.72 percent year on year. Steel products
exports, however, dropped sharply in the second half of 2007 on a
series of reduction in export tax rebates.
The net exports of crude steel soared in the first half of last
year, but then tumbled in the second half year by 22.55 percent
from the previous year, as a result of increased tax as far as
experts concerned. China scrapped the 13 percent export rebates on
carbon steel welded tubes as of July 1 last year and raised the
export tariff on steel billets to 25 percent, amid other efforts to
trim its rapid expanding trade surplus.
CISA figures showed the product mix has been further optimized,
with technology-intensive and value-added products rose
substantially.
(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2008)
