Steel sector expected to close 20% of active capacity

China’s steelmakers are expected to collectively cut active output capacity by 20% next year in response to losses across the sector from high costs and falling selling prices, the South China Morning Post reported, citing Shougang Group Chairman Zhu Jimin. Zhu, head of China’s ninth-largest steel firm, said at a seminar that the industry’s operating crude steel capacity has dropped significantly since June as loss-making companies have either scaled back production or gone out of business. Mining analyst John Johnson of CRU Beijing told the newspaper he anticipated metal prices falling an average of 30% in 2009.