US, others call for urgent actions to curb steel overcapacity

The US has been joined by the EU and several other nations in calling for urgent actions to address the glut in the steel industry mainly because of China's overproduction that has led to a global crisis.
Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and US Trade Representative Michael Froman yesterday said several economies have come together to issue a statement that includes steps to address the issue of excess steel capacity.
The statement comes a day after Pritzker and Froman expressed their disappointment that at the High-Level Meeting on global excess capacity in the steel sector, certain countries, including China, prevented a broad consensus in support of commitments to meet this challenge.

"We are pleased to announce that today a number of the economies participating in this week's High-Level Meeting agreed on a joint statement that presents our shared views on the challenges of excess capacity facing the steel industry and workers and proposes a series of steps to address these challenges," they said in a joint statement.
Canada, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, and Turkey have all joined the US in issuing the statement in support of urgent action, they said.
"It is our shared goal that other economies, including China, will come to recognise the value of these actions and will join our collective effort to address the causes of the current excess capacity problem," the two officials said.

The United States will continue to engage bilaterally and multilaterally with trading partners, including China, to take meaningful action to meet that goal, Pritzker and Froman said.

Speaking in the Senate, Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden alleged that over the past few decades, China has used market-distorting subsidies and industrial policies to prop up their own industries and rip off American jobs.
"While China's steel mills are churning out more steel than ever, American steel towns are suffering or worse. Thousands of jobs nationwide have been lost just in the last year. Even though one third of all steel produced today has no buyer, China continues adding to the glut by producing more steel," he said.

The same story is playing out in the case of primary aluminum: there's a huge overcapacity in China driven by market distorting government policies, he claimed.
"And it unleashes a chain of events that ends in economic devastation across this country. Global aluminum prices have plummeted, undercutting American firms," Wyden said.
The dumping of China's excess capacity overseas amid allegations it subsidises its steel firms has led to a global glut.
Last week, tens of thousands of German steel workers hit the street, demanding more measures against the dumping of cheap Chinese imports and greater job protection.
Britain's largest steel producer Tata Steel has announced plans to pull out of the country, threatening 15,000 jobs. The Tata Steel crisis was also blamed on China for flooding the market with products at artificially low prices.