China says it will continue to manage crude steel output in 2024
Adds further background
BEIJING, April 3 (Reuters) -China, the world's largest steel producer, will continue to manage crude steel output in 2024, its state planner said on Wednesday, without elaborating on the timing or scale of limits.
Beijing mandated zero output growth in its steel sector in 2021 and 2022 to limit carbon emissions from one of its most polluting industries.
That caused output to drop 3% year-on-year in 2021 and 1.7% year-on-year in 2022, contributing to lower imports of key steelmaking ingredient iron ore.
Although it made no publicly available statement on a cap in 2023, China's crude steel output was flat from a year earlier at approximately 1.02 billion metric tons, NBS data showed, defying expectations of an annual rise.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement that it, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), and the ministries of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), Ecology and Environment and Emergency Management will work with relevant parties to manage output this year.
It said they would work on promoting the development of the steel industry with a focus on energy conservation and carbon reduction, and would collect information from steelmakers nationwide on equipment.
This came after some major Chinese steel rebar producers called on authorities to restrict steel bar output amid narrowing margins and losses linked to ongoing weakness in China's property and infrastructure sectors.
China made 167.96 million tons of crude steel in January and February, a year-on-year rise of 1.6%, according to NBS data.
Some analysts expect March output to fall by more than 10% from last year's 95.73 million tons, as some domestic steelmakers either delayed restarts or implemented equipment maintenance amid weaker-than-expected demand.
Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Jan Harvey
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