Acceleration of merger and reorganization

In terms of crude steel output, the industrial concentration rate of the top 10 China steel tube manufacturers during the 13th Five-Year Plan period reached 38.8%. In the first year of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Anshan Steel Group restructured its original steel and raised the CR10 (the concentration rate of the top 10 enterprises in the industry) to more than 40%. At present, the promotion of merger and reorganization has become the consensus of the industry development, and has entered the stage of accelerating reorganization. In the future, the industry will play more decisive role in the allocation of resources by the market and promote the improvement of industrial concentration.

At the same time, the above guidelines also stressed the need to continuously optimize the industrial structure, and the main goals of the industry development include “significantly improving the level of industrial agglomeration development, and significantly increasing the concentration of the steel industry”. However, compared with the draft for public comment, the official draft has removed the quantitative index of rectangular hollow section concentration, that is, the concentration of the top five steelmakers should reach 40 percent, and that of the top 10 steelmakers should reach 60 percent.

To this change, the person in charge said that this is because for iron and steel enterprises, bigger is only the way, stronger is the goal. In the history of merger and reorganization of Chinese iron and steel enterprises, there are many cases of big but not strong after reorganization. Therefore, compared with the quantitative indicators of reorganization, the formal draft lays more emphasis on the development of quality requirements. After all, industrial agglomeration development is not only a simple combination, but also a deep integration of resources after reorganization, as well as the integration of the culture and concept of reorganization and restructured enterprises. It is also the ultimate realization of “combination” agglomeration and the transformation of large-scale development into the internal driving force of high-quality development of enterprises. Only in this way can the improvement of structural steel pipe concentration be of high quality and meaningful.

In the Guidelines, the adjustment of quantitative indicators does not only exist in merger and reorganization. Among them, for the original metal domestic self-sufficiency rate of more than 45%, to build one or two overseas equity iron mines with global influence and market competitiveness, overseas equity iron ore accounts for more than 20% of imported ore, advanced level coke oven capacity accounts for more than 70%, advanced black iron steel pipe production capacity accounts for more than 80%. Quantitative targets, such as the reuse rate of water reaching 98% or more, have been cut.