On 16 June, the plaque-presentation ceremony for the Distribution Branch and the Welded Pipe Branch of the China Iron and Steel Association, themed ‘Growing Towards the Sun · Setting Out Towards the New’, and the 20th Steel Distribution Promotion Conference were held in Beijing. The event was organised by the China Iron and Steel Association and hosted by the two newly established branches. Attendees included Jiang Wei, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee (in charge of day-to-day operations), Vice-President and Secretary-General of the China Iron and Steel Association; Ren Xingzhou, former Director of the Institute of Market Economy at the Development Research Centre of the State Council; Song Zhiping, President of the China Listed Companies Association; Chen Leiming, President of the Distribution Branch; and Li Maojin, inaugural President of the Welded Pipe Branch. Representatives from trade associations and chambers of commerce in over 30 provinces and municipalities across the country also attended the conference.

In his address, Jiang Wei pointed out that the establishment of the Distribution Branch and the Welded Pipe Branch represents a significant step towards advancing the reform of industry associations and improving services across the entire industrial chain. He stated that the two branches must leverage their proximity to the market to facilitate efficient coordination between production, distribution and processing, and guide enterprises towards a transition to service-oriented manufacturing. In his keynote speech, he emphasised that whilst the steel industry has now entered a phase of reduced-volume development, the sector’s profitability has defied the trend and improved during the 14th Five-Year Plan period by adhering to the ‘Three Fixes, Three Don’ts’ operational principles; Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it is necessary to accelerate mergers and reorganisations and, by relying on the three major initiatives of quality enhancement and product innovation, energy and carbon efficiency improvements, and digital transformation, break free from homogenised, low-price competition. Ren Xingzhou and Song Zhiping, speaking from the perspectives of macro-policy and the ‘New Blue Ocean Strategy’ respectively, recommended that the industry capitalise on policy opportunities such as new infrastructure and green, low-carbon development, and break out of the cycle of internal competition through differentiated development and mergers and acquisitions.

At the conference, Chen Leiming, President of the Distribution Branch, predicted that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the distribution sector would completely move away from traditional trade models and transform into a service provider specialising in supply chain resource integration; Li Maojin, President of the Welded Pipe Branch, proposed that the industry should embrace the concept of ‘healthy competition’ to promote constructive cooperation. The conference also released the ‘Initiative for Action Against Internal Competition in the Steel Distribution Industry’, calling on the entire sector to resist practices such as below-cost dumping and malicious order poaching, to accelerate the transition from intermediaries to comprehensive service providers, and to standardise export practices. This marks the extension of the consensus on combating internal competition in the steel industry from the production end to the distribution end, thereby rallying collective efforts to help the sector navigate the economic cycle smoothly.