China's Strategic Measures to Ensure Steady Progress in the Steel Sector

China is enthusiastically striving to attain equilibrium between supply and demand within its steel market this year, according to an announcement by the industry ministry on Friday. This pursuit comes despite the challenges posed by a sluggish economy and persistent concerns within the property market.

As the world's leading producer of steel, China has grappled with surplus production capacity for quite some time. The current year has added to this struggle due to diminished demand from the property sector, which traditionally serves as its largest consumer.

In a collaborative statement by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and other governmental entities, the roadmap for achieving this supply-demand equilibrium was not explicitly outlined.

Unlike previous years, there hasn't been a mandate from Beijing for a complete halt in annual steel output growth.

Furthermore, the statement highlighted that in 2023 to 2024, Beijing plans to enhance its oversight of the iron ore market while concurrently establishing a system to provide alerts for supply and demand fluctuations.

Given its significant reliance on international sources, Beijing is set to back domestic iron ore enterprises in transformative endeavors and encourage partnerships for overseas iron ore exploration, especially in neighboring nations—a strategic move elaborated upon in the statement.

The initiative also encompasses an intention to augment the import of recycled steel raw materials, contributing to a more sustainable approach.

China's aspirations extend to raising the output of 10 non-ferrous metals by 5% during 2023-2024, as disclosed by the industry ministry in a separate document released on the same Friday.

Remarkably, the initial seven months of this year witnessed a notable 7% surge in the collective output of these 10 non-ferrous metals compared to the corresponding period last year. This achievement, totaling 42.32 million metric tons, stands as a record high for this timeframe, as recorded by both the National Bureau of Statistics and Reuters.

Source : Reuters (Reporting by Siyi Liu, Amy Lv and Dominique Patton)