U.S. Steel Accusations Groundless, China's Baosteel Group Says


04/29/2016



China's Baosteel Group rubbished as being groundless the allegations that included by allegations of having stolen commercial secrets that were leveled by U.S. Steel Corp against the company and the Chinese company vowed to protect its legal rights.
 
U.S. Steel launched a campaign this week to halt imports from China and China's second-biggest steelmaker and the world's fourth is the first Chinese steel producer to respond to U.S. Steel’s campaign.
 
"In particular, the charges claiming that Baosteel stole commercial secrets from U.S. Steel is rootless speculation and subjective assumption, and could even be described as an absurd statement," Baosteel said in an emailed statement.
 
"Baosteel has not and will never steal to obtain technology," the company said, adding that it had consistently focused on original research and technology improvement. The charges in the application violate the spirit of justice and fairness and were also disrespectful and besmirching to Baosteel and its research staff," it said.
 
"Baosteel will protect its legal rights in accordance with related international regulations and laws," it added.
 
Chinese producers and their distributors were allegedly conspiring to fix prices, stealing trade secrets and circumventing trade duties by false labeling were the allegations that were labeled by U.S. Steel on a complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC) and called on ye regulators to investigate dozens identified Chinese producers.
  
Saying there was "no factual basis" for intellectual property disputes over China's steel exports to the United States, China's commerce ministry on Wednesday urged the ITC to reject U.S. Steel's call.
 
After China and other major steel producing nations failed to agree on measures to tackle an industry crisis, the United States, European Union and others last week called for urgent action to address global steel overcapacity.
 
Britain in particular has been hit hard as its largest producer Tata Steel has announced plans to pull out of the country, threatening 15,000 jobs.
 
As producers in China sell more at home, the domestic steel price rally could help limit shipments this year. Steel exports from China surged to a record 112 million tones last year as anger toward China has grown since that time.
 
The rapid increase in Chinese steel prices may deter government efforts to curb overcapacity in the sector in the short term by prompting once-shut mills to restart, Baoshan Iron & Steel, the listed unit of Baosteel Group, said.
 
"This will slow the reduction in overcapacity, but with mills reopening and supplies rising and the government strengthening monitoring on real estate and futures, steel prices will fall," Baosteel board secretary Zhu Kebing told a separate online briefing.
 
Previous big production cuts, low inventories and an improving Chinese economy were the reasons that Zhu attributed the spike in steel prices.
 
(Source:www.reuters.com)