International trade friction is a "normal" phenomenon that won't have a decisive influence on China's steel sector or reverse the trend of the domestic economy getting better, an industry insider told the Global Times on Thursday on condition of anonymity.

　　The person, who works in the comprehensive management department of a leading domestic steel association, said that China's steel industry is having serious problems.

　　"We can't rely on external forces, like exports, to solve those problems. We must find our own solutions, such as by stimulating domestic demand or improving the steel industrial system," he said.

　　The comments came after the European Commission (EC), the executive arm of the EU, announced measures on Wednesday to mitigate the negative effects of global overcapacity on steel markets in Europe.

　　According to a statement released by the EC on Wednesday, Europe's competitive position in the global steel market has "deteriorated" in the past few years, and one reason for that has been increasing excess production capacity in certain countries, "notably in China".

　　The document calculated China's overcapacity at about 350 million tons, almost double the EU's annual production.

　　The EC said in the statement that it will take more measures to tackle the situation, including shaving at least a month off the time needed for the adoption of provisional anti-dumping measures.

　　Ma Zhongpu, a senior steel industry commentator, said that the deterioration in Europe's steel market was not caused by overseas dumping, but was a result of Europe's economic recession.

　　"In the past few years, domestic steel factories were engaged in a competition by price cutting because of overcapacity. As China's steel prices fell, steel export volumes increased. But that was not dumping because the government did not give any subsidies to those companies to deliberately squeeze down steel prices for the sake of exports," Ma told the Global Times on Thursday.

　　China exported 112 million tons of steel in 2015, up 19.9 percent year-on-year, statistics released by the customs agency on January 13 showed.

　　China's steel prices have rebounded in 2016, and this will cause steel exports to fall back slightly this year, Ma said, adding that this will make the EU's dumping complaints "ungrounded".

　　Zheng Dong, a steel industry analyst, told the Global Times on Thursday that the EU won't be too harsh on imported steel from China.

　　"They also need to consider the needs of local clients. They want cheap products," he said.