China may come up with more restrictions to curb steel exports, including imposing licenses to export companies, restricting steel projects in the processing sector, a senior official with the country's top economic planner said recently.

Restricting steel export will still be the tendency and China would reduce its steel production to avoid overcapacity, said Hu Chunli, a senior official with China's National Development and Reform Commission.

China has already taken six measures to discourage steel export and export rebates for many steel products had been lowered to zero while tariff for some steel products also reached 15 percent.

According to the latest statistics released by China Customs, the country's steel products exports stood at 5.38 million tons in Aug., down 9.4 percent over last month.

However, in the first eight months, China's steel and steel billets exports still jumped by 83.8 percent and 10.9 percent to 45.08 million tons and 5.61 million tons.

Strong demand in the international market, high profit of exporting and weak influence of curbing policies are the main reasons for the increasing exports.

"As long as the steel export generates more profit, Chinese enterprises will still expand their exports." Hu said.

Along with the declining investing in the steel sector, implementation of reducing emission and energy saving and new curbing policies, steel export will finally go down, he said. Enditem

(Xinhua News Agency September 22, 2007)