China's Steel Capacity Grew In 2016 Despite Pledges: Report

BEIJING, , (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Feb, 2017 ) - China increased its steelmaking capacity last year by more than twice Britain's annual output, a report said Monday, despite repeated pledges to cut huge excess in the sector.

China makes more than half the world's steel but a slowdown in its economy and sagging global demand has left the industry with massive excess capacity. It has been accused of dumping its production on world markets, depressing prices and violating international trade agreements.

Throughout 2016, authorities vowed to tackle excess production through consolidation and shutting idle or inefficient factories. But while some steel capacity was cut, this was more than offset by China's opening of new factories or restarting of idle plants, according to a report by steel consultancy Custeel and Greenpeace East Asia.

It said China's operating steelmaking capacity increased by 36.5 million tonnes in 2016 -- more than twice as much as the total production capacity of Britain. Eighty percent of this increase occurred in three provinces bordering Beijing, causing air pollution to spike in the capital at the end of the year and early 2017, it added.

Steelmaking is the country's second largest emitter of air pollution, the report said. Nearly three-quarters of plants affected by China's capacity cuts in 2016 were already idle.