NPC Representative Li Xiaobo: Chop Off Steel Excess Capacity by "Green Sword"

"Make environmental constraints a green sword for steel overcapacity governance, to chop off substandard steel capacity relentlessly." deputy to the National People's Congress and Chairman of Taiyuan Iron and Steel (Group) Co., LTD., Mr. Li Xiaobo said.

In 2015, many steel enterprises are in red for serious steel overcapacity and need to make a life-or-death choice. Li believes that it has become the consensus of the iron and steel industry to promote healthy development of iron and steel industry by completely closing down "zombie companies" with inefficient and backward capacities such as serious pollution, long shutdown, hopeless to stop loss, low quality products and capital chain rupture from the market.

Li said that the iron and steel industry is a typical high carbon industry, how to realize green development, low carbon development and cycle development has become a major issue to governments at all levels as well as iron and steel enterprises.

He stressed that we should measure all steel enterprises fairly by unified and rigid environmental standards to protect enterprises with complete environmental equipments or good environmental measures from being attacked. We should promote minimization adjustment, and force the relative backward capacity stay out of the market orderly by full use of market mechanisms.

"Government could work with financial institutions by ways of financial support and discount interest, to help steel enterprises which reached environmental protection standard gain greater development by giving priority to provide loans for them, and to make environmental protection as a red line of steel enterprises." Li said.