Steel firms see their fortunes brighten in October (3)

In the first nine months, the country produced 542 million tons of crude steel, an increase of 1.7 percent year-on-year.

"It's not easy to reduce overcapacity," Wang said. "That is related to the companies' structure and millions of jobs."

Earlier this month, Ba Shusong, vice-president of the Development Research Center for the State Council and chief economist of the China Banking Association, said overproduction in some industries, such as the steel industry, will make policy makers more cautious about taking large measures to boost the economy.

He also predicted China's economy will exhibit a modest rebound in the fourth quarter.

At the same time, industrial analysts called on steel companies to take steps to avoid rapidly increasing their output for the time being.

"Even though downstream demand is increasing, steel companies still have to put reasonable limits on their output to prevent an oversupply in the market," said Xu Xiangchun, a senior analyst at the industrial information provider Mysteel.com.

dujuan@chinadaily.com.cn

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