Since the beginning of this year, the growth rate of industrial production has continued to slow down, and economic benefits have further declined. In January and February, the profits of industrial enterprises above designated size decreased by 5.2% year-on-year, among which the steel industry decreased by 68.4%, making it the industry with the fastest decline rate. On March 30th, in response to the current problems in the steel industry, the Operations Monitoring and Coordination Bureau and the Finance Department jointly held a special symposium, inviting the Steel Industry Association and relevant experts to exchange ideas.

Qu Xiuli, Deputy Secretary General of the Iron and Steel Association, analyzed the main difficulties in the operation of the steel industry in recent times: firstly, due to the impact of the slowdown in economic growth, the demand for steel has significantly weakened, and the price has dropped significantly; Secondly, the sustained high prices of imported iron ore have led to high production costs for enterprises; The third issue is the production capacity and structural problems that exist within the industry itself. Three major factors led to a loss in the first two months of this year, from the low profit in the fourth quarter of last year. The attending experts analyzed and predicted the current situation and development trends of the steel industry from the perspective of market monitoring.

At present, the steel industry has entered a critical period of accelerating the transformation of its development mode. In order to promote industry structural adjustment, transformation and upgrading, and sustainable development, the Steel Association proposes the following policy recommendations.

One is to increase support for renovation and expansion projects related to technological progress, recycling and utilization of renewable resources, energy conservation and emission reduction, and circular economy construction; Merger and reorganization projects that optimize resource allocation may consider merging and paying corporate income tax; Expand“ Catalogue of specialized equipment for environmental protection, energy and water conservation, safety production, etc; Range; Expand the scope of tax incentives for comprehensive utilization of resources.

Secondly, adjust and improve the import and export tariffs and value-added tax policies for steel products; Refine the import and export tax rules for steel products; Segmenting domestic high value-added long products and encouraging exports; Increase the export tax rebate rate for high value-added products such as stainless steel, and include stainless steel scrap in the list of goods for processing trade.

The third is to reduce the burden on domestic iron mining enterprises, exempting them from income tax for investing in expansion and new iron mines to expand production using current year profits; Return the consumption tax on refined oil paid by iron mining enterprises; Combine resource compensation fees with resource taxes for collection.

Fourthly, establish domestic steel processing and trade channels to promote fair participation of domestic steel enterprises in market competition; Improve value-added tax reform (especially by reducing tax rates), merge business tax with value-added tax, reduce double taxation, and achieve tax burden equity; Timely clean up and rectify various unreasonable charges; Steel enterprises are exempt from the Renewable Energy Fund and Major Water Resources Fund for their self generated electricity consumption using residual pressure and waste heat; Self built ports should be exempt from paying port construction fees.

The Operations Bureau and the Finance Department finally stated that the steel industry has been facing difficulties in recent years, and the profits achieved are mainly supplemented by side businesses. With the current economic growth rate falling, steel prices falling sharply, and high ore prices, the development of the industry is even more difficult. They hope to work together to do a good job in analysis and monitoring, and strengthen information reporting. We will work together to coordinate and help solve the difficulties and problems reflected by the industry and enterprises. In terms of reducing the burden on enterprises, efforts are being made in an orderly manner in accordance with the work deployment of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; Further cooperate with the industry to communicate effectively with relevant departments in areas such as energy conservation, emission reduction, structural tax reduction, and export tax rebate policies.