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Research report on overcapacity reduction in China’s steel industry

Analysis commissioned by Greenpeace East Asia shows that, despite having met and exceeded ambitious capacity cut targets for 2016, China’s steel industry last year saw a net increase in operating capacity equivalent to more than twice the UK’s total capacity. An average 74% of cut capacity was already idle, while previously idle plants were restarted and more than offset cuts in operating capacity. With steel the largest polluting sector in northern China’s pollution-hit provinces, the increase in operating capacity will pose a major obstacle to the government’s “war on air pollution”.