China’s Jilin and Henan provinces have said they plan to complete their steelmaking capacity reductions early this year, with around 3.5 million tonnes/year of steelmaking to be cut in the next few months. The announcements follow central government proclamations that the pace of capacity eliminations would pick up in the second half of the year, Kallanish notes.

Central China’s Henan province is targeting the closure of 1m t/y of ironmaking and 2.4m t/y of steelmaking capacity by the end of the year. Around 800,000 t/y of the steelmaking capacity is expected to be closed by the end of October. North eastern China’s Jilin province meanwhile plans to complete its 1.08m t/y of steelmaking capacity eliminations by the end of August.

China achieved only around one third of its 45m t/y steelmaking capacity closure target in the first six months of 2016, according to the National Development and Reform Commission. It recently said that this had increased to around 45% by the end of July and that it was pushing provinces to act more quickly in the coming months.

Source: Henan and Jilin Local Governments