Many of the world’s steelmakers are expressing growing concern about global oversupply and increasing exports from China, the world’s largest steel producer and consumer, and warning Chinese producers to rein in their production, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Although the near-term outlook for demand remains strong, steel producers gathering here at the annual meeting of the International Iron and Steel Institute trade group urged production restraint. “It is very likely in the near future we will have to face a serious problem of oversupply,” said Paolo Rocca, president of Italian-Argentine conglomerate Techint Group.

IISI said it expects apparent steel use — a measure that reflects steel shipped to customers but doesn’t include steel plucked from inventories — to increase 9% this year to 1.12 billion metric tons consumed globally, up from 1.03 billion metric tons last year, with growth slowing to 5% in 2007.

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