China Baowu's crude steel output world's largest in 2019

Steel giant China Baowu Steel Group announced Wednesday that it surpassed the Luxembourg-headquartered ArcelorMittal to become the world's largest producer of crude steel in 2019.

Baowu's annual production of crude steel reached 95.22 million tonnes last year, compared to the figure of 89.8 million tonnes reported by ArcelorMittal in its 2019 annual report.

Formed by the reorganization of the former Baosteel Group and Wuhan Steel in 2016, Baowu was restructured with Masteel Group in September 2019.

Chen Derong, chairman of Baowu, said the company is in pursuit of economy of scale based on specialized integration by promoting vertical integration and optimization along the chain as well as horizontal consolidation to avoid disorderly competition.