General Steel in China's Qualified Steel Maker List

BEIJING – General Steel Holdings, Inc. (GSI), a leading non-state-owned steel producer in China, said its principal manufacturing facility, Shaanxi Longmen Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., has been included in the List of Enterprises Fulfilling the Iron and Steel Industry Specification released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China (MIIT). The Longmen joint venture is the only enterprise in China's Shaanxi province included in the List.

The list comprises 158 qualified steel makers, including the initial 45 members first published by the MIIT in April 2013 and an additional 113 newly qualified members released in January 2014. The list includes a highly-selected group of large and medium steel manufacturers that have met or exceeded stricter national requirements and standards on product quality, environmental protection, energy consumption, workmanship and equipment, production scale, as well as work safety and social responsibility. The MIIT will collaborate with China's other governmental agencies to provide support to the list's members and to speed up the steel industry's restructuring and consolidation. Steel makers omitted from the list will most likely face higher electricity costs, more restrictive administrative measures, and adverse effects of forceful regulations intent on reducing the nation's overcapacity.

"We are honoured as the only qualified steelmaker in Shaanxi province that was included in the list," said Henry Yu, chairman and chief executive officer of General Steel. "We believe the list demonstrates the government's determination to control overcapacity and lead China's steel industry into sustainable healthy growth. Our sole selection in the province not only ensures our leadership position in the region's steel production, but also brightens our short and long term outlook, as many of the unqualified steel makers will likely be forced to consolidate with stronger suitors or shut down. As the supply and demand of the Chinese steel industry becomes more balanced in the near future, we anticipate stronger steel producers, like General Steel, will expand profit margins as well as gain market share."Air Max