the United States and several other major countries steel producers may announce in coming days that they continue a Global forum to reduce excess steelmaking capacity, despite the decision of Beijing to get out of this process, said Tom Gibson, President of the American iron and steel Institute (AISI).
"In the near future I expect to hear from the government of the United States or Japan ... how will membership in the new forum," said Tom Gibson. "I think we can consider ... the application of China as a bluff and say we are ready to act ourselves."
the Forum was created by G-20 three years ago. Japan, as a leader of the G-20 this year, held its annual meeting this weekend in Tokyo. China said the other members of the forum, what he's already done more than was need for the world community, and the forum should be dissolved.
However, in a statement, the Japanese President Hiroshi Kajiyama says that "the great majority of members" agreed to continue their joint and individual work on this issue.
the Organization for economic cooperation and development recently estimated that the world can produce up to 440 million metric tons of steel more than 1.7 billion tons, which were actually consumed in 2018. In addition, it is expected that the steel demand in the coming years will grow slower, which means a new crisis of overproduction.
"the Crisis will continue, because in the future there will be sufficient demand for steel, even if new capacity will not be added," said Gibson at a public meeting of the forum last week.
"the Decision of the majority of the members of the Global forum to continue the work of the Forum after 2019 is the recognition that a serious excess capacity is an ongoing crisis," said Deputy trade U.S. representative Dennis Shea.
