Ministers from 34 of the largest steel-producing countries have failed to agree measures to tackle the industry’s oversupply problem, leading to a dispute between the US and China.

The meeting took place in Brussels yesterday involving countries representing 93 percent of global steel production, but had little productive outcome. Furthermore, the US blamed Bejing for their handling of the situation, with the US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker saying a statement:

“Unless China starts to take timely and concrete actions to reduce its excess production and capacity in industries including steel … the fundamental structural problems in the industry will remain and affected governments – including the United States – will have no alternatives other than trade action to avoid harm to their domestic industries and workers.”

China’s assistant trade minister, Zhang Ji, responded that the excess capacity was the result of the 2008 economic downturn, with falling demand being “the fundamental reason” for the problem. China’s official state news agency Xinhua called Washington’s comments a “a lame and lazy excuse for protectionism”.

The UK business secretary Sajid Javid also attended the meeting, which took place just days after Tata Steel announced plans to sell its UK plants, risking 15,000 jobs. The lack of outcome in countering the problem of excess supply in the steel industry is likely to hinder the UK’s attempts to find a buyer for the plants, which were reported to have been losing over £1 million per day.

19/04/2016