Significant overcapacity will remain in China’s steel sector even after planned restructuring, industry executives said at the weekend, suggesting no let-up for the beleaguered industry’s plant closures and job losses across the globe.
钢铁行业高管周末表示，即便在规划中的重组之后，中国钢铁业产能仍将严重过剩，这似乎表明全球陷入困境的钢铁业的工厂倒闭和失业不会有任何改善。
The acknowledgement by Chinese government officials and the country’s steel association came as the UK foreign minister and a leading US steel executive added their voices to concerns about the recent surge in exports from China.
在中国政府官员和钢铁业协会做出上述承认之际，英国外交大臣和美国钢铁业一位领先高管也加入了对中国最近出口飙升表示担忧的行列。
Luo Tiejun, an official with China’s industry ministry, said at a conference that planned cuts would reduce annual steel capacity to about 1.1bn tonnes by 2020 while domestic consumption was unlikely to exceed 700m tonnes.
中国工业和信息化部官员骆铁军在一次会议上表示，规划中的重组将让年度钢铁产能到2020年降至11亿吨左右，同时国内消费不太可能超过7亿吨。
“We need to cut [an additional] 200m tonnes for the situation to become acceptable,” Mr Luo said, noting that China also currently exported about 100m tones of steel annually.
骆铁军表示：“要想让情况变得可以接受，我们需要（额外）削减2亿吨产能。”他指出，中国目前仍在每年出口约1亿吨钢铁。
The growing international controversy surrounding China’s steel industry comes at an awkward time for the Chinese government, which is seeking to secure EU “market economy status” by the end of the year.
对中国政府来说，围绕中国钢铁业的争议愈演愈烈的时机颇为尴尬，因为中国正在争取欧盟在今年底之前承认其“市场经济地位”。
Beijing argues that the designation, which would make it harder to prove that Chinese steel plants were “dumping” their products overseas at below cost, should be granted automatically under the terms of its 2001 World Trade Organisation accession agreement.
北京方面辩称，按照2001年加入世贸组织(WTO)的相关条款，中国应该被自动授予“市场经济地位”。这将使贸易伙伴更难证明中国钢厂以低于成本的价格在海外“倾销”产品。
But EU officials, many of whom were initially favoured granting China MES, face a growing backlash from European unions, industry and politicians, especially after Tata Steel said it would dispose of a Welsh steel plant that employs 4,000 workers. The Indian group has blamed cheap Chinese exports for the pressure building on its European operations.
但欧盟官员——其中有许多最初支持授予中国市场经济地位——遭遇来自欧洲工会、行业和政客们日益强烈的反弹，尤其是在塔塔钢铁(Tata Steel)宣布将关闭威尔士一家雇用4000名员工的钢厂之后。塔塔钢铁指责中国钢铁的廉价出口导致其欧洲业务日益承压。
The crisis at Tata’s Port Talbot facility in Wales even featured at a weekend meeting of the UK and Chinese foreign ministers, where trade disputes are seldom on the agenda. “I urged China to accelerate its efforts to reduce levels of steel production,” Philip Hammond, UK foreign secretary, said after a meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing.
塔塔在威尔士塔尔伯特港(Port Talbot)工厂发生的危机，甚至成了英中外交部长周末会晤的一个话题——贸易纠纷一般很少出现在这种会议上。英国外交大臣菲利普•哈蒙德(Philip Hammond)在北京与中国外长会晤后表示：“我敦促中国加快削减钢铁产量水平的努力。”
But Mr Hammond also welcomed “potential interest” by Chinese companies in the UK steel sector, as David Cameron’s government attempts to cash in on its new status as Beijing’s “best friend” in Europe.
但哈蒙德也对中国公司对英国钢铁行业的“潜在兴趣”表示欢迎。目前戴维•卡梅伦(David Cameron)政府正试图利用英国作为中国在欧洲的“最好朋友”这一新地位。
In contrast to the EU, the US is extremely unlikely to agree to Beijing’s demand for MES, especially in an election year during which the frontrunners for the Democratic and Republican parties’ presidential nominations have threatened to roll back the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other free trade agreements backed by the Obama administration.
与欧盟相反，美国不太可能同意授予中国市场经济地位的要求，尤其是在选举年——民主党和共和党的总统候选人提名领跑者均威胁要逆转《跨太平洋伙伴关系协定》(TPP)以及奥巴马政府支持的其他自由贸易协定。
In a further acknowledgement that China’s planned capacity cuts will not be enough to quell the growing controversy, the head of the country’s leading steel association said that “controlling steel output is more important” than cutting capacity.
中国主要钢铁协会会长表示，“控制钢铁产量比削减产能更重要”，进一步承认中国规划中的产能削减将不足以平息愈演愈烈的争议。