By CHUIN-WEI YAP
BEIJING—China will renew its push to reduce the production capacity of its sprawling steel industry, as its largest steel mills continued last year to make only limited progress in the industry's consolidation, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.
The country produced 626.7 million metric tons of crude steel last year, an all-time high that refocused attention on limited effectiveness of policy tightening and government's attempts over the years to cull the industry's size.
The 10 largest steel mills raised their combined contribution to the country's total steel output to 48% last year from 45% in 2009, and a total of 179 million tons of obsolete steel and iron capacity was shut down, he said.
"We should keep tight control of expansion in the highly energy-consuming [and polluting] industry," he said in a briefing to reporters.
The ministry's data shows that the top 10 steel mills' crude steel output increased slightly in volume terms last year. At 45% of 2009 output, the top 10 mills would have produced 259.6 million tons of crude steel. At 48% of 2010 output, their production would have been 300.8 million tons.
In addressing the reach of the government's policy, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology spokesman Zhu Hongren sought to make a distinction between permitted and illicit output capacity additions.
"In referring to overcapacity, we are not talking about mere 'expansion of capacity,' but blind expansion," he said, without elaborating.
China's steel output capacity has reached 700 million tons, Mr. Zhu said.
The cement industry, beset by similar issues, also saw output rise last year by 15.5% to 1.8 billion tons, he said.
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