China to Standardize the Steel Industry

China has vowed to take two or three years to standardize and streamline the domestic steel sector in all aspects, from the market order to iron ore prices, from industrial redistribution to technological upgrading.

Currently, there are nearly 400 million tons of unlicensed steel production capabilities across the nation, 55.7 percent of the country's total output. Since July this year, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has received project application materials from 60 steel produces in 20 provinces and autonomous regions for their legal status, and have examined and approved 36 cases with a total capacity of 310 million tons.

This year China will eliminate 35.24 million tons of pig iron and 8.76 million tons of steel capacity as the original plan. The industry will also have to phase out every blast furnace below 400 cubic meters (incl.) and converter and electric furnace below 30 tons (incl.) next year.