Recently, Baosteel announced that it has reached an agreement with Rio Tinto, one of the world's major iron ore producers: In 2008, the benchmark prices of Rio Tinto's PB, Yangdi, and PB blocks will be based on the basis of 2007 respectively. It is up 79.88%, 79.88% and 96.5%. This is undoubtedly a bad news for the steel industry. It is also bad news for the fastener industry, which uses steel as the main raw material. Relevant persons in charge of more than 40 domestic fastener industry giants such as Jinyi Group and Beijing Standard Parts Industry Group gathered in Haiyan Fastener Hardware City to jointly discuss the development of the industry.

“In the past few years, bad news has been circulating in the fastener industry. The appreciation of the renminbi has reduced the competitiveness of export products of enterprises, and the reduction in export tax rebates has reduced the profitability of enterprises. Now, the sharp rise in steel prices will directly lead to rising product costs. The long-running EU anti-dumping case can be said that the entire domestic fastener industry is in the midst of internal and external problems.At this critical moment, companies in the industry should unite together to develop and speak in the same voice, and only in this way can we tide over difficulties. It is also the reason why we call everyone today. Representatives from the powerful companies in all producing areas in the country have a considerable market share in the national market and should lead the way in navigation.” China Machinery General Parts Industry Association The professional association president Feng Jinluo said.

The person in charge from a state-owned company in Shanghai spoke: “In the past, enterprises, especially small businesses, had plundered orders at low prices. However, at the current RMB exchange rate, they broke 7” and the export tax rebate rate fell from 13% to 5%. With the zero tax rebate and even the increase of tariffs and the high price of steel, this behavior is tantamount to drinking water and thirst, and it is very easy to drag down the entire industry. Therefore, we must first self-discipline, without prejudice to the development of the industry. The major companies play a leading role. Second, we must unite. Only uniting together will make us stronger, and we will have more say in negotiating with steel mills and talking with foreign businessmen."

The benefits of the alliance are obvious. Feng Jinlu introduced that taking the case of the EU anti-dumping case as an example, the National Fastener Association has hired a famous lawyer from Brussels and spent RMB 1 million to reward another RMB 500,000. This is not what a single company can do. The lawyer also did not disappoint the association. Through a lot of work, it affected the decision-making level of the European Union so that the European Union set up an investigation team for this anti-dumping investigation in China. This has never been done before. In addition, member companies of the association are all working hard to influence their respective buyers. At present, several EU Chambers of Commerce have changed their positions and oppose the passage of anti-dumping cases.

“Only self-discipline can make the fastener industry develop healthily and stably; only when combined can we take advantage of raw material procurement, merchandise exports, trade disputes, etc. Therefore, self-discipline and alliance are the directions we should strive for.” Fan Yulong, vice president of the association and president of the Ningbo Fastener Association, said. For this statement, the fastener associations in Guangdong, Wenzhou, Haiyan, Hebei Yongnian and other places and the heads of Jinyi Group, Jiaxing Brothers, Ningbo Donggang and other companies all expressed their agreement and discussed specific methods of operation.