- China limits steel industry growth, eliminates outdated capacity, and strengthens regulatory oversight.
- Action plan drives green transformation, digital upgrades, and high-quality steel production.
- Strategy balances supply-demand, stabilizes prices, and fosters sustainable global competitiveness.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) collaborated with four other government sectors to unveil an action plan aimed at stabilizing the growth of the steel industry for 2025-2026, which features a 4 percent limit on the annual average growth of value added and a commitment to eliminate outdated capacity.
The document stated that the industry is functioning on narrow profit margins with an unstable growth base, as increasing environmental standards necessitate an urgent shift toward green and low-carbon practices, imposing significant investment and funding challenges.
The action plan outlined 10 targeted measures addressing five areas, focusing on the issues of high consumption and decreasing demand. The strategy requires enhanced industry oversight, accurate regulation of capacity and production, and tiered oversight of steel companies to encourage a balance between supply and demand and eliminate outdated capacity.
The action plan focuses on enhancing supply quality and demands more robust technological innovation, increased capacity for premium products, improvements in the quality of bulk products, stabilized raw material availability, and a general elevation in effective supply capacity.
It also seeks to encourage industrial change and enhancement by advocating for increased productive investment, expedited modernization of processes and machinery, quicker digital transformation, and intensified efforts in sustainable and low-carbon development to propel comprehensive industry advancement.
The steel sector is urged to leverage consumption needs by enhancing collaboration in areas such as shipbuilding and fostering the use of steel structures in residential, public infrastructure, and small- to medium-span bridges, according to the strategy.
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The action plan seeks to tackle major industry issues, mainly focusing on the steel sector's oversupply and low prices, while aiming to balance supply and demand and foster healthy development within the industry, Wang Guoqing, research director of the Beijing Lange Steel Information Research Center, informed the Global Times on Monday.
Wang stated that beyond regulating capacity growth, the industry must partner with businesses and research institutions to boost the supply of high-quality steel products. The action plan is intended to stop the oversupply of standard steel from reducing prices and profits, thereby assisting the steel sector in achieving sustainable and dynamic growth.
The strategy emphasizes openness and collaboration, advocating for enhanced export regulation, equitable competition, improved product composition, legal trade practices, and synchronized development of products, technology, and services to promote global growth.