The Minister for Industry said in a statement on Wednesday that China intends to meet its target for reducing steel production capacity two years earlier than its target, Reuters reports.
China, the world’s top steel producer, is continuing a several-year plan to reduce excess output in the industry by 150 million tonnes by 2020.
This effort has been countered by rising interest from steelmakers to increase capacity, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said, during a time of strong prices for the commodity. The ministry also referenced the real risk of bringing back induction furnaces.
“Strictly preventing the addition of new capacity will be the key to successfully pushing the structural supply-side reform in the steel industry in 2018,” the statement explained.