Press briefing on H1 economic data

China Mining News:

We know that as part of the traditional mining industry, some coal, iron ore and non-ferrous metal companies have witnessed some losses in the first half of this year. But from the data you just provided, the production value and the fixed asset investment in the mining industry still maintain a growth rate of more than four percent. Does this fall in the reasonable range? And based on what you know, will you please predict the development trend of the mining industry in the latter half of this year or even in a longer period of time? Thank you.

Sheng Laiyun:

Thank you. It is very attentive of you to have observed the minute changes in the data. The mining industry, and even the smelting of the entire non-ferrous metal, have been confronted with serious challenges in recent two years; the prices are falling considerably, the production capacity is still releasing, and there is a great gap between market demand and supply. Both the industrial adjustment and transition are faced with great pressure. Pressed by the market, many companies in these industries proactively adjusted their structures and transformed their development mode to bring about products that meet market demand, thus the entire industry has maintained growth. But the growth rate has dropped drastically compared to the average growth rate in the past several dozen years.

The production capacity does require our attention. The output keeps growing, and the growth rate in some areas is larger than the demand, which increases the pressure in storage. It also shows that the prospect of making adjustment in these industries is still daunting. But we believe that as long as these traditional industries seize the opportunities of the current economy steadily growing, make more efforts in adjusting structures and transforming development mode, adapt to the market mechanism and make adjustments proactively, they will overcome the current problems and revitalize themselves. Thank you.

Hu Kaihong:

Here ends the press conference. Thank you, Director-general Sheng. Thank you all.