China and EU vow to tackle steel overproduction

Vice-Premier Ma Kai said on Tuesday the global economic slowdown was the main cause of the overcapacity of steel, something Beijing and Brussels will tackle together.

Ma said steel overcapacity is a global problem but noted that China made concerted efforts between 2011 and 2015 to cut its overcapacity.

"We are determined to reduce steel overcapacity by 100-to-150 million tons during the 2016 to 2020 period," said Ma, who was co-chairing the annual EU-China High-level Economic and Trade Dialogue in Brussels, along with Jyrki Katainen, vice-president of the European Commission. "This amount roughly equals the total of European capacity."

"I can tell you that we are going to reduce 50 million tons this year and we will complete this task," he said. "We have checked the numbers onsite and they are solid."

Katainen said both sides followed up on the last summit's agreement to establish a dedicated bilateral platform on steel and the Global Forum set up at the G20 summit in Hangzhou.

More than 50 top executives representing the European steel industry have written to European Union leaders calling for tougher anti-dumping measures to deter what they regard as unfair competition from China. Their demands for a tougher US-style tariff regime will find an echo among some European leaders worried by the impact of imports of domestic plants and jobs. But once again Britain, facing negotiations on the terms of its exit from the EU, is likely to be the odd man out.

The UK has consistently said it backs China's claim to market economy status.

Britain has in the past been among those blocking proposed toughening anti-dumping measures, despite the challenges currently confronting the UK steel industry. In March, unnamed senior EU officials were quoted as saying Britain had blocked attempts to reform EU anti-dumping rules to combat what was described as a glut of cheap Chinese steel imports.