Analysis of the hottest international steel market

International steel market analysis China's steel industry is in a downward trend

according to the survey of relevant people, since the 1990s, due to the weakening of steel consumption intensity in developed countries, the contradiction between supply and demand in the steel market has become prominent. According to the investigation of relevant people, since the 1990s, the contradiction between supply and demand in the steel market has become prominent in developed countries due to the weakening of steel consumption intensity. The increasingly fierce external competitive environment has prompted traditional strong enterprises to gradually shift from antagonistic competition to cooperative monopoly competition. Mergers and acquisitions are prevalent in major steel producing countries (regions) such as Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea, and the concentration of the steel industry has significantly increased

Europe: from the end of last century to the beginning of this century, the merger and reorganization of European steel industry showed an accelerated trend. In 1997, Thyssen Ag and Krupp Hersch Ag merged into ThyssenKrupp Ag; In 1999, the British Steel Association and the Dutch hoghoven company merged into Corus company; In 2001, three enterprises, namely, French yuzenol, Luxembourg Albert and Spain achilleria, were jointly restructured into Arcelor company; LNM group, which will eventually be buried in landfills and started with acquisitions, has successively implemented large-scale cross-border acquisitions to form Mittal Steel Group. In the past two years, it has successively completed the mergers and acquisitions of American International Steel Company and Arcelor steel company, becoming the world's largest steel company. Through a series of joint restructuring, the industrial concentration of European steel enterprises has increased significantly. In 2007, the total output of the four major European steel companies was 159.42 million tons, equivalent to 90.73% of the total output of the 15 European Union countries. In 1999, the output of the top four European steel enterprises accounted for 54.29%, which was 36.44 percentage points higher than that in 1999

United States: the merger and reorganization of American steel enterprises lags behind European enterprises. However, under the pressure of increasingly fierce competition among global steel enterprises, the aging structure and high labor costs of the U.S. steel industry at the beginning of this century led to the plight of its steel industry, which accelerated the pace of joint restructuring of U.S. steel enterprises. In 2007, the output of the four largest steel companies in the United States accounted for 52.90% of the total output of the United States, an increase of 15 percentage points from 37.9% in 1999

Japan: after several rounds of mergers and acquisitions, more than 50 steel enterprises in Japan after the war have been adjusted to a pattern dominated by five joint enterprises, namely Nippon Steel, NKK, Kawasaki, Sumitomo Metal and Kobe. In the past two years, through joint restructuring, the five steel companies have initially formed the framework of the two groups. NKK and Kawasaki iron and Steel Corporation, the second and third largest steel companies in Japan, merged to form JFE holding company in 2002; After that, Nippon Steel also stepped up its cooperation with other enterprises. In 2007, the total output of Japan's four largest steel companies was 89.87 million tons, accounting for 74.77% of Japan's total output, an increase of 16.02 percentage points from 58.75% in 1999

South Korea: the concentration of steel industry in South Korea has been relatively high. Due to the special policy support of the government, POSCO, the largest steel company in South Korea, has an absolute advantage in production. After the Asian financial crisis, some steel enterprises in South Korea have been restructured. For example, Incheon iron company and Jiangyuan Industrial Company announced their alliance in 2000. At the same time, POSCO, the largest steel company, is also actively seeking cooperation and alliances with international competitors. In 2007, the steel output of the three largest steel companies in South Korea totaled 45.68 million tons, which was an integral part of the whole trade ecosystem, accounting for 88.93% of the total output of South Korea, an increase of 9.77 percentage points from 79.16% in 1999

the concentration of China's iron and steel industry is very low, and shows a downward trend

although China's iron and steel industry occupies a very important position in the world, and its iron and steel output and consumption are far ahead in the first place, it is extremely disproportionate that only Baosteel and Tangshan Iron and steel are China's top 10 iron and steel enterprises in the world

the low concentration of China's iron and steel industry has always been an urgent problem to be solved for the development of China's iron and steel industry and the adjustment of industrial structure. Luo Baihui, Secretary General of the International Mold Association, said that from the changes in the concentration of China's steel industry in recent years, compared with the sharp increase in the concentration of developed countries and regions in the world year by year, the concentration of China's steel industry has not increased, but also showed a downward trend. Take the proportion of steel output of the four largest enterprises as an example: in 1999, the four largest steel companies in China were Baosteel, Angang, Shougang and WISCO, which accounted for 31.3% of the national steel output; In 2007, the four largest iron and steel companies in China were Baosteel, Tangshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., Anshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. and Shagang iron and Steel Co., Ltd. the total output of these four enterprises was 94.41 million tons, accounting for only 19.3% of the total output of the country, a decrease of 12.77 percentage points from 1999. After the joint reorganization of European, American, Japanese and Korean steel enterprises, the first four enterprises in 2007 increased significantly compared with 1999, and the proportion of the first four enterprises in 2007 was more than 50%. Even in Russia, a country with economic transition, the proportion of the first four enterprises in the national steel output was as high as 76.72%, which was much higher than that of China