Xu Lejiang has been appointed as the new chairman of the board of directors of Shanghai Baosteel Group Corporation, China's largest steelmaker, and Ai Baojun has been named as its new president, the company said Tuesday.

The appointment was made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council, China's cabinet, the company said in a statement posted on its website.

The appointment was announced by Wang Dongming, deputy head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, at a meeting held in the company's headquarters in Shanghai on Monday, the statement said.

Xu, 48, joined Baosteel in 1982 and was appointed board director and vice president of the company in 1998. He has served as Baosteel's president since December 2004 and chairman of the board of directors for Baoshan Iron and Steel Co. Ltd., the listed unit of Baosteel, since May last year, according to the company's website.

Ai, 47, joined Baosteel in 1994 and worked as vice president and chief accountant for the company between 1998 and 2000. He served as board director of Baosteel from 1998 through 2005. He has been working as board director and president of Baoshan Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. since February 2000.

Xu replaced 64-year-old Xie Qihua, who stepped down due to her age, the statement said.

Xie joined Baosteel in 1978 and was appointed as president of the company in 1994. She has served as chairwoman of the board of directors for the company since 2003. Currently, Xie is president of the China Iron and Steel Association.

"Xie has made significant contributions to Baosteel and China's iron and steel industry with her decades of years of diligent work and rich experience in business management," Wang told Monday's meeting.

Known as the "Iron Lady" of the iron and steel industry at both home and abroad, Xie led Baosteel into the list of Fortune 500 companies for three years in a row from 2004 to 2006.

Baosteel is one of the biggest global steel conglomerates with an annual production capacity of 20 million tons. It ranked 296th on the 2006 list of Fortune 500 companies with sales revenue of 126.6 billion yuan (16.2 U.S. dollars) and was top of a list of China's 500 largest manufacturers.