I. Why Guangxi's Steel Industry Merits Separate Study

On the map of China's steel industry, Guangxi has long played a supporting role. Over the past decade, however, an industrial axis stretching from inland Liuzhou to the Beibu Gulf coastline is redefining this region's position in the national metallurgical landscape.

What makes Guangxi distinctive is its geographic duality: Liuzhou is one of Southwest China's oldest steel-producing cities, yet the region relies on imported iron ore for more than 80% of its supply. The Beibu Gulf seaport overcomes the bottleneck of transporting raw materials inland, making Fangchenggang one of China's few coastal steelmaking sites that combines deep-water port access with abundant land. In 2023, Guangxi's steel and metallurgical cluster surpassed 300 billion yuan in output value, and in 2024 the value-added of ferrous metal smelting and rolling industries grew 9.1% year-on-year, outpacing overall manufacturing (source: Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Statistics Bureau, 2024 Statistical Communiqué).

This growth occurred while the national steel sector was mired in its most difficult cycle — high output, high costs, high exports on one side; low demand, low prices, low profitability on the other — which makes the Guangxi trajectory all the more worth examining.

II. Dual Geographic Poles: Liuzhou and Fangchenggang

Guangxi's steel production is organized around a clear "one primary, one secondary" two-pole structure.

Liuzhou: Southwest Legacy Industrial Base

Liuzhou is Guangxi's most important ferrous metal smelting center, with an industrial heritage tracing back to the mid-20th century. The Liuzhou steel ecosystem, anchored by Liugang Group and supported by downstream demand from automotive, machinery, and construction material sectors, has developed a relatively complete industrial ecology. The inherent disadvantage — high iron ore transport costs for an inland city — is precisely why Liugang has steadily shifted incremental capacity toward the coast.

Fangchenggang: Coastal Growth Pole

The pace of Fangchenggang's rise in steel production is unusual by national standards. By 2023, Fangchenggang's steel output exceeded 20 million tons and the industry's total output value surpassed 100 billion yuan (source: Fangchenggang Municipal Government). Four steelmaking enterprises are now based there: Guangxi Shenglong Metallurgy, Guangxi Steel Group (a Liugang subsidiary), Fangchenggang Fucheng Steel Products, and Fangchenggang Jinxi Section Steel Technology. Installed capacity stands at approximately 20 million tons, with an official target of 30 million tons by 2025.

The logic is straightforward: iron ore arrives by sea, is smelted on-site, and products move inland via the Southwest corridor or are exported to Southeast Asia via the Beibu Gulf — a flow that materially lowers logistics costs compared to inland production.

III. Key Enterprises

Liugang Group (Guangxi Steel Group Co., Ltd.)

Liugang is the largest steel enterprise in Guangxi and a regional leader across Southwest China. Its listed subsidiary, Liuzhou Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. (stock code 601003), reported in its 2024 Annual Report: total revenue of 70.132 billion yuan, steel output of 11.59 million tons, and total assets of 64.676 billion yuan. The company recorded a net loss of 433 million yuan for 2024, an improvement of 579 million yuan year-on-year, broadly in line with the national industry's deepening losses. Designed rolling capacity is 20.8 million tons, making Liugang the unchallenged leading enterprise in Guangxi's steel sector (source: Liuzhou Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. 2024 Annual Report).

In Fangchenggang, Liugang's Guangxi Steel Group completed the full commissioning of the Phase I coastal base in November 2024 — including the No. 3 blast furnace and a 3,800mm heavy plate production line capable of more than 2.6 million tons per year of high-end plate products. According to Lange Steel Network, cumulative steel sales from Guangxi Steel Group reached 3.56 million tons through May 2024, up 40% year-on-year.

Guangxi Shenglong Metallurgy Co., Ltd.

Shenglong Metallurgy is the other major force in Fangchenggang, producing primarily construction-grade rebar and wire rod, sourcing iron ore directly from Australia and Brazil via the deep-water port.

Fangchenggang Jinxi Section Steel Technology Co., Ltd.

Specializing in H-section steel and structural steel, it represents the product diversification within the Fangchenggang cluster.

IV. Supply Chain: From Imported Ore to End Markets

The upstream of Guangxi's steel industry depends heavily on seaborne iron ore imports, which account for more than 80% of consumption, sourced primarily from Australia and Brazil. Fangchenggang's deep-water terminals, capable of handling Very Large Ore Carriers (VLOCs), are the critical infrastructure enabling this supply chain.

The midstream covers a full range of smelted and rolled products: pig iron, crude steel, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled sheet, rebar, section steel, and heavy plate. The Fangchenggang heavy plate line targets shipbuilding, offshore engineering, and bridge applications — industries whose downstream clusters in Qinzhou and Fangchenggang create regional synergies.

On the demand side, construction and infrastructure have historically dominated Guangxi's steel consumption. As Guangxi advances its dual-opening strategy — eastward into the Greater Bay Area, southward toward Southeast Asia — steel exports to ASEAN are also expanding, providing an outlet for excess capacity.

Scrap steel recycling and electric arc furnace (short-process) steelmaking form an important loop in the industrial chain. Guangxi has set a target for short-process output to reach 15% of total production by 2025, reducing dependence on imported ore while lowering carbon intensity (source: Guangxi Industry and Information Technology Department).

V. Challenges and Transition

Guangxi's steel sector faces the compounded pressure of nationwide structural issues and region-specific vulnerabilities.

Demand-side contraction: Sustained real estate weakness has depressed demand for construction steel, particularly rebar. Liugang's 2024 steel output fell 9.45% year-on-year, partly reflecting deliberate output restraint in response to low price conditions.

Raw material import risk: With over 80% import dependency for iron ore, combined with RMB exchange rate fluctuations and international ore price volatility, cost-side uncertainty is a long-term structural issue. Fangchenggang's coastal location reduces logistics costs but cannot eliminate price risk at the source.

Capacity replacement pressure: National-level policies continue to push for crude steel capacity reduction. Liugang disclosed capacity retirement progress in late 2024, indicating that the group is phasing out older capacity as required by policy, in exchange for new capacity quotas at the Fangchenggang base.

Green transition requirements: The regional industry authority has called for adoption of oxygen-enriched smelting, high-pressure dry quenching, and other energy-efficiency technologies, alongside an orderly shift from blast furnace–converter (long-process) to electric arc furnace (short-process) steelmaking. This is both a carbon reduction pathway and a long-term competitiveness imperative.

VI. Assessment

The future of Guangxi's steel industry is, in essence, a process of re-monetizing geographic endowments. Liuzhou's historical base and Fangchenggang's coastal advantage are being integrated under Liugang as a single corporate actor — Liuzhou produces higher-value specialty steel, Fangchenggang handles large-scale commodity smelting, each playing to its comparative strength rather than duplicating the other.

Whether this structure proves durable depends on two variables: first, whether Fangchenggang can open export markets for heavy plate and offshore steel in Southeast Asia; second, whether Guangxi's emerging downstream industries — new energy vehicles, offshore wind, rail transport equipment — can generate sufficient specialty steel demand to replace the retreating construction sector. The answers are not yet clear, but the axis running from an inland industrial city to the Beibu Gulf coastline has already made plain which direction it is pointing.

Sales teams supplying upstream materials to Guangxi steel smelters can use Tianxia Gongchang to filter factory directories and key contact information by region and industry across Liuzhou, Fangchenggang, Nanning, and other major production zones.

Data Sources

  • Tianxia Gongchang (Guangxi ferrous metal smelting and rolling factory directory and industry data)
  • Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Statistics Bureau, "2024 Statistical Communiqué on National Economic and Social Development"
  • Liuzhou Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., "2024 Annual Report" (Shanghai Stock Exchange announcement, April 29, 2025)
  • Fangchenggang Municipal Government official information (14th Five-Year Plan coastal industry features)
  • Guangxi Industry and Information Technology Department (short-process steelmaking targets and industry efficiency policy)
  • Lange Steel Network (Guangxi Steel Group Fangchenggang capacity adjustment announcement, 2024)
  • China Steel News Network (Liugang Fangchenggang 10-million-ton base fully commissioned, November 2024)