China Baowu Steel Group

In the first half of the 20th century, the steel industry in China was not developed, the only large enterprise was built by the Japanese immediately after the First World War in Anshan , the total steel production in China did not exceed a million tons per year. During World War II, the Anshan factory was destroyed. With the formation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, industrialization of the country began, mainly on the model of the USSR , in particular in the steel industry, metallurgical plants were built according to Soviet projects (the plant was restored in Anshan with an increase in productivity of up to 7 million tons, a new plant was built in Wuhan , and some more small factories). However, in the early 1960s, steel production began to interrupt due to overvoltage of existing production facilities. The government began to centralize control over the industry, closing small enterprises and importing technology from Austria, Japan and other countries. By 1979, steel production in China reached 34 million tons, the country had 13 plants with a capacity of more than a million tons, as well as 800 smaller enterprises ^[6] .

With the beginning of Den Xiaoping's reforms in the late 1970s, further modernization of the steel industry began, in particular, in 1978, the construction of a new plant for 20 million tons per year in Baoshan near the Shanghai port began, following the model of the Japanese plant in Kimitsu. The construction of this flagship of the PRC steel industry was completed in 1988, and Baoshan Iron & Steel Corporation was created on its basis. The following year, the plant became the main supplier of steel for another Chinese giant, the automaker Shanghai Automotive Industry Group . In 2003, the plant supplied 60% of steel pipes for a 4,200 km long gas pipeline connecting the east of China with the west of the country ( ). However, since the late 1990s, competition in the Chinese market began to increase, by 2005 there were 4,000 steel producers in the country, and total production reached 200 million tons. To maintain industry leadership, Baoshan Iron & Steel has chosen a competitor acquisition strategy. In 1998, were acquired by Shanghai Metallurgical Group Corporation and Shanghai Meishan Group Co. Ltd., as a result, the name of the corporation was changed to Shanghai Baosteel Group Corporation. To finance the continued development of the corporation in 2000, shares in one of its subsidiaries, Shanghai Baosteel Iron & Steel, were listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange . In 2001, Baosteel became the main steel supplier for Fiat , an alliance was formed with the Shougang Group and the Wuhan Iron and Steel Group Corporation, as well as a technological partnership with the German ThyssenKrupp . In 2003, $ 270 million was spent on acquisitions. In 2005, the construction of a new plant in Zhanjiang was started ^[6] . A controlling stake in Xinjiang Ba Yi Iron and Steel Group was purchased in 2007, 71.8% of Zhanjiang Iron and Steel in 2008, 51% of Guangdong Shaoguan Iron and Steel Group in 2011.

On December 1, 2016, the merger of the Baoshan Iron and Steel Group with the Wuhan corporation Wuhan Iron and Steel was completed, resulting in the formation of China's largest steel company with an annual output of about 60 million tons of steel. Like Baoshan Iron and Steel, Wuhan Iron and Steel had a subsidiary company, whose shares were listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, but after the merger, the shares of both companies were removed from the listing ^[7] .

In September 2018, negotiations began on the merger of China Baowu Steel with another Chinese steel producer, the Magang Group. In the event of a merger, steel production by the company will surpass the total steel production in the USA and will almost equal the world leader ArcelorMittal ^[8] .

In 2017, China Baowu Steel Group produced 65.39 million tons of steel (in 2016 - 63.81 million tons) ^[4] .