The restructuring ceremony of Anshan Iron and Steel Group (Ansteel) and Pangang Group Company was held Thursday, making Ansteel the new official parent company of Pangang and reducing China's State-owned steel mills from four to three, the Shanghai Securities Journal reported Friday.

According to the statement of the State-owned Asset Supervision and Administrathion Commission, Angang Steel Co Ltd, the listed unit of Ansteel, and Pangang will be the subsidiaries of the new Ansteel, no longer under the direct supervision of the commission, the report said.

Zhang Xiaogang, Party secretary and general manager of Ansteel, said the group had set new strategic targets after restructuring: by the year 2015, the group's annual steel output will enter the world's top 5 and it will also boost the vanadium and titanium output.

In an earlier interview with the newspaper, Zhang said Pangang would focus on the production of vanadium and titanium, since this was the only sector in the iron and steel industry that did not have an overcapacity problem.