The competitiveness ranking of world-class iron and steel enterprises (November 2021) was released

World Steel Dynamics (WSD) released the latest competitiveness ranking of world-class steel enterprises in November this year. South Korea's POSCO continues to rank first, and has ranked first in the competitiveness of global steel enterprises for 12 consecutive years. Compared with last year, a total of 35 enterprises have entered the competitiveness ranking of world-class iron and steel enterprises this year. The number and enterprises themselves have not changed, but the ranking has changed greatly.

WSD said in the report that overall, the financial performance of the 35 iron and steel enterprises has improved unprecedentedly, reflecting the improvement of global demand and the rise of steel prices. 17 of the 35 companies have a net debt to EBITDA ratio of less than 0.5, of which 23 have a figure of 1.0 or less. On the other hand, the number of Companies in the "expansion" mode is arguably the lowest since WSD began publishing these rankings. This undoubtedly reflects pile up in excess of requirement for novel coronavirus pneumonia. This is actually evident before the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia outbreak. WSD said that for the future ranking, it is considering adding new indicators or adjusting individual indicators, because the "green steel revolution" redefines the meaning of "world-class steel manufacturer".

As the most competitive iron and steel enterprise in the world, POSCO obtained a full score of 10 points in eight aspects of high value-added products, conversion costs and benefits, technological innovation ability, advantages of skilled workers, assets and liabilities, downstream business, M & A and joint venture, and local risk factors among the 23 scoring items, one more full item in the balance sheet than last year; The scores of other indicators are the same as last year. Finally, the company continued to rank first with a weighted average score of 8.54, which was higher than last year's score (8.42).

Compared with last year, the top ten iron and steel enterprises in competitiveness have undergone great changes. This year POSCO, Newco, shevel and Russo Xingang continued to rank in the top four; China's Baowu jumped from 11th place last year to fifth place; VAI slipped from fifth place last year to ninth place; Japan's iron and steel industry moved from sixth place last year to seventh place; ArcelorMittal exchanged positions with Japan's iron making, ranking one place forward to seventh; Steel power Co., Ltd. ranked eighth as last year; Jingdeloitte southwest iron and Steel Co., Ltd. withdrew from the top 10, falling from the ninth place last year to the 12th place; Yefraz also ranked 17th from the top 10 enterprises last year; Tata iron and steel company moved into the top 10 from 12th last year, ranking 10th.

Among the most competitive steel enterprises in the world this year, there are four enterprises in China (mainland), the United States, India and Russia, three in Brazil and two in Japan and South Korea. The four steel enterprises in China (mainland) included in the ranking are: Baowu (with a score of 8.04, ranking fifth), an increase of 0.44 points over last year's weighted average score, ranking sixth; Followed by Angang (6.93 points, ranking 28th), the score increased by 0.1 points and the ranking decreased by three places; Maanshan Iron and steel (6.57 points, ranking 33rd), ranking unchanged, score increased by 0.35 points; Shagang (6.14 points, ranking No. 35), the score decreased by 0.03 points, ranking decreased by one.

After ranking 10th in competitiveness in 2017, Baowu group once again ranked among the top 10 in the competitiveness of global steel enterprises after four years, and ranked fifth in 2012, the last time it entered the top 10 before 2017. Compared with POSCO, which ranks first in terms of competitiveness, in terms of scoring factors, Baowu has a full score of 10 in terms of scale, capacity expansion and proximity to downstream users, while POSCO has 9, 8 and 8 points respectively. Baowu has the same score as POSCO in terms of balance sheet, M & a, alliance and joint venture, with a full score of 10, but in terms of pricing power, high value-added products There is still a gap in the scores of factors with high weight, such as conversion cost and income, cost reduction ability, technological innovation ability, ownership of iron ore, downstream and non steel business. In addition to Baowu group, the ranking of the three Chinese steel enterprises included in the evaluation is still relatively low. It is worth mentioning that the four Chinese iron and steel enterprises on the list scored 3 points in the domestic market pricing ability index, except Baowu group, which scored 7 points. Among all the ranked steel enterprises, Angang, Maanshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. scored the lowest in this index, which indicates to a certain extent that, on the one hand, the enterprises lack fist products or exclusive products, On the other hand, the concentration of China's iron and steel industry is still low, and the pace of merger and reorganization needs to be accelerated.

In general, Chinese iron and steel enterprises still need to find and improve their weak links in terms of high value-added products, technological innovation ability and resources, so as to continue to improve their competitiveness. In particular, the "green steel revolution" is pushing the urgency of "technological innovation" to a new frontier. Leading technology will become a magic weapon for the medium and long-term survival and success of steel enterprises.