Hebei steel output drops

Beijing
Northern China’s Hebei, the country’s biggest steelmaking province, produced 16.11 million tonnes of the material in May, down 2.4 percent on the year, hit by weak underlying demand and a seasonal construction downturn.
Crude steel output from Hebei in the first four months of the year reached 83.28 million tonnes, 0.3-percent lower than the same period last year, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Hebei’s total output amounted to 23 percent of the national total in May and 24.5 percent in the first five months. Hebei’s steel sector is one of the principle targets of China’s “war on pollution”, with the province under pressure to slash annual steel capacity by 60 million tonnes over the 2014-2017 period.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is about to release details of a plan to curb nationwide capacity by 80 million tonnes over the 2015-2017 period, with small and private mills in Hebei likely to bear the brunt of the cuts.