Profile Four: A journalist for 20 years and still counting
Among the interviewees were an association official, an analyst, and a state-owned company official in trading and investment, who have shared their individual observations and unique views on China’s steel industry development for the past decades. To round off the series, I am here to tell my own story of how I have reached where I am. It is time for a bit of self-reflection.
When I graduated as a Bachelor of English Literature, I would not have imagined staying in the discipline of journalism, basically since Day One of stepping out of my university. Looking back, though, I have no regrets that I have stayed on this path.
The past two decades have afforded me plenty of experiences and presented all the challenges, a mixture of sweet and bitter, in learning new markets, getting to know interesting people, working ungodly long hours yet staying sharp and alert, travelling east and west to talk to market sources and to cover industry events.
Changes in China’s steel industry
When I joined the ferrous industry as a journalist in 2004, China’s annual steel output was hovering around 200 million tonnes, yet by 2020, production had skyrocketed to 1.065 billion tonnes.
China’s steel industry has been progressing through stages too. There was the boom period over 2004-2008 propelled by the robust demand, a rather mediocre period over 2009-2011 with Beijing’s Yuan 4 trillion ($609 billion) spending spree to rescue the country from the impact of the financial crisis, the 2012-2015 winter of oversupply when steel prices slumped and raw materials price remained comparatively high, the bottoming-out and revival period over 2016-2019, and now the government policy-driven period of 2020-2021 when the domestic steel sector has again been benefiting from economic stimulus measures.
Partially market-oriented and partially policy-influenced, the Chinese steel industry has been on a bumpy journey too as the years have passed. The years of 2011-2012 were the intersection when market-driven demand resulted in a decade of glory, before the overzealous expansion and steel oversupply kicked the industry into a swamp – where many steel enterprises languished before the opportunity emerged in 2016 for them to rise above the water again, so some were not so lucky.
In retrospect, the year 2016 was a year of gear-changing in China’s steel industry when Beijing demonstrated its determination to crack down on excessive, illicit and sub-quality steel capacities. The central government’s aim was clear: to relieve the industry of the consequences – if not offset them completely – of the blind expansion pursued in the glorious days. That was also the year when the domestic steel mills, especially the sizeable producers operating strictly in accordance with the rules and regulations, finally felt the warmth of the sunshine after a long and wretched cold winter in 2012-2015.
Changes in industrial news coverage
Being a newbie in any new job is no fun – for both employer and employee – but I was fortunate when I embarked on the path of journalism, my mentor in Xinhua News Agency was helpful and even-tempered. Under her guidance, I managed to survive my early years as a novice reporter, ignorant of journalism at all, but my confidence stayed intact after the three years, even enjoying the days there as a junior writer.
The first position in Xinhua opened up a whole new world to me, helping me to fulfill my dream of experiencing as many jobs as possible in my lifetime, viewing the world through others’ eyes when interviewing them. And being a night-owl, I had loved my long night shifts running 7pm-7am back then.
Three years of being away from journalism afterwards only made me realize how much I loved the profession, so I returned to its ranks in 2004. This has become a long commitment, though the coverage of ferrous market was by no means an easy ride.
The first three months into a completely unknown, cold and rather technical world produced ongoing nightmares, with all the technical jargons crowding my head, none making much sense.
Working for a foreign market intelligence agency but covering the Chinese ferrous and nonferrous back in the early 2000s was also tricky in that many Chinese contacts and companies had no recognition of my company’s name. My cold calls for comments or information frequently resulted in being hang up upon or being quizzed closely about the identity or purpose of my calls, as well as suspicions being aroused that I was fishing for confidential information.
The whole situation improved tremendously after three years of suffering, and it was with an immense sense of fulfillment that I have built up my network of contacts in some top-tier and state-owned steel mills in China, the most cautious group of contacts among them all.
However, the reshuffling of steel mills and traders during the frosty days of 2012-2015 saw some of my long-time contacts move on within the industry or abandon it completely, so the whole process of getting-to-know new contacts was repeated afterwards to plug the holes in my contact network as they appeared.
The steady evolution of the Chinese steel industry over the past 17 years has also made it impossible to take a proper rest, reassured that I have come to know the industry well enough, and I am no near to the destination either. My journey continues, with the scenery on both sides changing all the time, winter snow flakes, spring blossoms, scorching sun in the summer, and the colorful falling leaves in the autumn have been accompanying me all this time.
(Spring in Beijing in April 2021, pic from a friend’s WeChat sharing)
Links to the first three Profile stories:
Profile One: A Beijing steel trouper for over two decades
Profile Two: A witness to China’s steel market in 30 years
Profile Three: Once an analyst, always an analyst
(https://www.mysteel.net/article/5022107/Profile-Three--Once-an-analyst--always-an-analyst.html)
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