Speaking at an industry forum on May 21, Zhao Penggao, director of the environment and resources department at China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), stated that China will eliminate 15 million mt of outdated crude steel capacity in 2015 in order to ease the oversupply situation in the Chinese domestic steel sector.
According to Mr. Zhao, based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China's elimination of crude steel capacity has already achieved results. For instance, in 2014 China's crude steel output only indicated a year-on-year growth of 1.2 percent, with comprehensive energy consumption per metric ton of crude steel produced down 1.65 percent year on year, which is the first time that China's steel industry has not recorded a year-on-year rise in comprehensive energy consumption for crude steel.