| China's steelmaker Baosteel announces resignation of chairwoman |
SHANGHAI, Jan. 16 (AP) -- China's No. 1 steelmaker, Shanghai Baosteel Group Corp., has announced the resignation of its chairwoman, Xie Qihua, amid speculation she may be headed for a senior government position.
In 2002, Xie was among two business leaders named as alternates to the 198-member Communist Party's Central Committee -- an indication of her senior political stature.
Xie was replaced as chairwoman by Xu Lejiang, who earlier took over her post as chairman of the company's Shanghai-traded public unit, Baoshan Iron & Steel, the company said in an announcement.
Xie was born in Shanghai in 1943 and trained at Tsinghua University. She spent the first years of her career at a small steel company in north-central China's Shaanxi province, joining Baosteel when it was founded in 1978.
Baosteel is China's biggest steel producer, with output of 23 million tons of crude steel in 2005. It plans to raise its annual steel production capacity to 30 million tons by 2009 and 50 million tons by 2012. The company claims more than 50 percent of the automotive steel market in China.
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