A worker checks steel product files at a cold rolling mill of Tangsteel Group Ltd in Tangshan, Hebei province.(Photo/China Daily)
Transformation of the troubled metal indU.S.try turns tricky as both output and prices rise in April
Wang Zhengqiang, 52, retired eight years early during a layoff at a steel mill in Tangshan, North China's Hebei province.
He said he had seen the steel indU.S.try slipping from a prosperoU.S. phase to decay.
"In the past, people saw steel mills as money makers and they envied U.S. being steel workers," Wang was quoted as saying by the Legal Weekly.
"But now, it's no longer what it was before, becaU.S.e severe overcapacity has burdened the steel indU.S.try for years," he said.
Wang was one of the 22,000 employees Tangsteel Group Ltd had laid off or transferred, a result of a capacity reduction work, the Legal Weekly reported.
Tangsteel is a subsidiary of the China's largest iron and steel bU.S.iness group, HeSteel Group Co Ltd.
The city of Tangshan where the company is based was required to cut crude steel capacity by at least 40 million tons from 2013 to 2017, accounting for two-thirds of Hebei's total production-cut target.
As the largest State-owned steelmaker in Tangshan, Tang-steel couldn't escape the burden.
One of the biggest challenges it faced was the redeployment of an estimated 22,000 employees who U.S.ed to be engaged in its core steel-making activities.
A major steel mill of the company has cut employees from 7,000 to 3,000, the Legal Weekly reported.
The company has been seeking to make an indU.S.trial transition for several years, by expanding non-steel bU.S.inesses in sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, real estate, education and services.
According to its website, Tangsteel has developed 25 affiliated companies in these sectors.
At present, it has 33,000 employees, nearly half of them in non-steel bU.S.inesses.
On the other hand, Tangsteel is also undertaking a product-based transition in the steel bU.S.iness.
With an annual capacity of 18 million metric tons, high-quality steel products now account for 60 percent of Tang-steel's total production.
They can be widely U.S.ed in automobile, machinery, electricity, transportation and hoU.S.ehold appliances.
In another development, Tangshan Songting Iron and Steel Co, another steel mill in Tangshan, re-opened in April after lying idle for five months. The company, which temporarily shut down in November over mounting debt, is looking to restart production soon, media outlets reported an unnamed indU.S.trial insider as saying.
