The supply and demand of iron and steel industry basically balanced this year.

Recently, the All-China Metallurgical Chamber of Commerce held an enterprise exchange meeting in 2018. Zhang Zhixiang, president of the All-China Metallurgical Chamber of Commerce, said that the iron and steel industry is expected to run smoothly in the fourth quarter and that the basic balance of supply and demand in 2018 has become the main tone.

Zhang Zhixiang said that in 2018, the management of iron and steel industry had an unprecedented good situation, and the operating performance was the best level in history. Capacity utilization rate has entered a reasonable range, supply and demand are balanced, prices are maintained at a relatively high level, and enterprise benefits are steadily improved.

According to the data of China Steel Association, member iron and steel enterprises realized sales revenue of 3.06 trillion yuan in January-September, an increase of 14.47% compared with the previous year, realized profits and taxes of 346.681 billion yuan, an increase of 68.2% compared with the previous year, and realized profits of 229.963 billion yuan, which exceeded the total profits of 2017, an increase of 86.01% compared with the previous year. The steel industry has reversed many years of slight profit or even loss.

For private steel enterprises, according to the data from the Metallurgical Chamber of Commerce, the crude steel output of 160 key private enterprises is 340 million tons, an increase of 5.25% over the same period of last year. The output of pig iron was 2.97 million tons, down 0.9% from the same period last year, and the output of steel was 3.82 million tons, an increase of 17.5% over the same period last year. Sales revenue reached 19248 billion yuan, an increase of 168 billion 300 million yuan over the same period, an increase of 130% over the same period last year.

"We should not be blindly optimistic about the improvement of efficiency, and the difficulty of maintaining the current level of profitability is increasing." Liu Zhenjiang, secretary-general of China Iron and Steel Industry Association, said recently that September was originally the best month for the iron and steel industry, but the profit margin of sales has declined compared with August. The increase of raw material cost, financial cost, environmental protection cost and operation cost has increased steadily and steadily in the benefit of extrusion mills.

Data show that iron and steel capacity expansion impulse is still in place, the problem of excess lumber is outstanding. In September, 2 million 695 thousand tons of crude steel were produced in the whole country, creating a new record in China's steel industry. But it should be noted that 75% of the increase comes from non member enterprises. At the same time, the cost of financing is high, and the financial expenses of enterprises increase by 12.5% over the same period.

Zhang Zhixiang also said that the ground bar steel may revive at any time. In the process of capacity conversion, although the state strengthens supervision, strictly regulates capacity replacement, and strictly prohibits new production capacity, there are still some suspected phenomena of big to small, and new iron and steel projects are continuously put into operation. At the same time, all factories are improving the smelting intensity and production efficiency, and will also increase part of the steel output.

Liu Zhenjiang has also said that special attention should be paid to the market changes in the fourth quarter, especially the structural changes of steel used next year, good forecasting and market analysis, strict prohibition of new production capacity and prevention of the resurgence of slab steel, consolidation of the results of capacity removal, and acceleration of industrial layout adjustment through joint restructuring. (source: economic reference daily)