China needs more efforts in steel capacity cuts in H2
Source: www.chinamining.org Citation: Xinhua Date: July 26, 2016
China reduced steel capacity by 13 million tonnes in the first half of 2016, about 30 percent of the planned cuts for the whole year, and capacity cuts will intensify in the second half, a senior official said Monday.
The progress in the first half of this year "was in line with our expectations," and "we remain confident that we will fulfill our capacity cut targets for 2016," Feng Fei, vice minister of industry and information technology, told a press conference.
China aims to cut steel production capacity by 45 million tonnes in 2016.
In the first half of this year, work focused on breaking down tasks to allocate them to provincial-level regions, and the formulation of supportive measures for steel capacity cuts, according to Feng.
In the second half, implementation of capacity cuts and supportive measures will speed up, he said.
China is the world`s largest steel producer and consumer. The steel industry has been plagued by overcapacity for years. It has been felt even more in the past two years as demand for steel has cooled.
Steel producers experienced their worst year in 2015, with combined losses in main business soaring 24-fold from 2014 to over 100 billion yuan (15 billion U.S. dollars).
China has shut down steel plants with a total capacity of over 90 million tonnes over the past five years and plans to reduce the landscape further by an additional 100 million to 150 million tonnes by 2020.
Feng said China`s crude steel production fell 1.1 percent year on year in the first half of this year, and operational conditions of the steel sector reported improvement.
According to the China Iron and Steel Association, China`s large steel plants saw improved profits and narrowed losses in the first five months of this year thanks to destocking efforts.
Major iron and steel enterprises raked in 8.736 billion yuan in the Jan-May period, up over 700 percent year on year while fewer firms reported losses, the association said.
About CHINA MINING
Since first held in 1999, the scope and influence of CHINA MINING has grown rapidly year by year. As a global mining summit forum and exhibition, CHINA MINING Congress and Expo has become one of the world’s top mining events, and one of the world’s largest mining exploration, development and trading platforms, covering all aspects of the whole mining industry chain, including geological survey, exploration and development, mining rights trading, mining investment and financing, smelting and processing, mining techniques and equipment, mining services, etc. playing an active promotion role in creating exchange opportunities and enhancing mutual cooperation between domestic and foreign mining enterprises.
CHINA MINING Congress and Expo 2016 will be held at Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Center in Tianjin on September 22nd -25th, 2016. We invite you to join the event and to celebrate the 18th anniversary of CHINA MINING with us. For more information about CHINA MINING 2016, please visit: m.balanzskin.com.
