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China saw a jump in steel imports and a fall in exports during the first half of this year as a result of its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and trade conflicts between world's major steel producers.

According to State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC) statistics, China imported 11.72 million tons of steel during the first six months, an increase of 37.5 percent over the same period last year. China is the world's largest steel producer.

Steel exports, in contrast, were down 8.2 percent to 2.23 million tons during the first half, from the same period last year.

"The ratcheting-up of steel imports is mainly the result of China's tariff cuts and relaxation of non-tariff measures under its WTO obligations," explained Jiang Yuan, an SETC official.

China's average steel import tariffs have declined 50 percent since the WTO entry in December.

China has also removed quotas on steel imports.

Another SETC official, Zhou Ping, attributed the increase to last-minute steel imports by some traders who attempted to reduce business risks caused by temporary measures China introduced in May.

According to a Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation notice of May 22, imports of nine different steel products were to be subject to additional tariffs ranging from 7 to 26 percent when they went above a certain amount.

Those 180-day safeguard measures were not meant to apply to products from developing countries. These account for less than 3 percent of China's steel imports and include Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus, which have bilateral iron and steel trade deals with China.

The world's major steel-producing countries have targeted the Chinese market as competition and trade conflicts amongst them increased.

"The decline in China's steel exports during the first half of this year mainly resulted from the trade conflicts ignited by the United States," Jiang said.

In March, the United States began slapping tariffs of up to 30 percent on steel imports from a range of countries - including members of the European Union (EU), China, Russia, Japan, South Korea and Canada - to prop up its ailing steel industry.

Many nations, like those of the EU and Canada, responded angrily to the US move and adopted similar measures, making things more difficult for China's steel exports.

At the beginning of this year, SETC set a target of 7.5 million tons of steel exports for this year.

To increase exports, the Chinese Government exempted products of 33 steel manufacturers from a 17 percent added-value tax.

"The increase in imports and decrease in exports has worsened the oversupply situation in domestic steel and put great pressures on our steel enterprises," said Qi Xiangdong, deputy secretary-general of the China Steel and Iron Associations.

According to Qi, nearly 100 key Chinese steel manufacturers had profits of 8.5 billion yuan (US$1.02 billion) during the first six months, down 8.9 percent from the same period last year.

China's steel output was up 19.8 percent year-on-year to 91.82 million tons in the first half.