China has released a work plan for the steel industry, with production expected to decrease by more than 25 million tons in 2025

Five Chinese government departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Commerce (IOC) and the State Administration for Market Regulation, have published a Work Plan for Stabilizing the Growth of the steel industry for 2025-2026, which states that China will implement a clear regulation of production capacity and production volume. According to local sources and Reuters, there are no specific targets for reducing production, but the Chinese authorities plan to support the production of higher technologies and close outdated facilities. As noted in the plan, in the period 2025-2026, the volume of industrial value-added production in the ferrous metals smelting and rolling sector in China may grow by 4.0 percent compared to the same period last year.

At the same time, according to market insiders surveyed by SteelOrbis, China's steel production is likely to be below 980 million tons in 2025, below 1.005 billion tons in 2024. Even with these production reduction expectations, they are still quite conservative. According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, in January-July of this year, China's steel production amounted to 594.47 million tons, which is 3.1 percent less, which is 19 million tons less compared to the same period in 2024. "There was talk[earlier this year]that China would cut 50 million tons[in 2025], but now we see that curbs are slowing down. Since September, demand