The State Council of China has issued an Action Program on Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction for 2024-25, stating that China will strengthen the regulation of steel capacity and production outputs. China will strictly implement the replacement of iron and steel capacity, prohibit new iron and steel capacity under the guise of machining, casting, or ferroalloys, and prevent the resurgence of low-quality long steel production capacity.
Newly constructed and expanded steel smelting projects must meet energy efficiency and environmental performance benchmarks at level A. Additionally, regions that fail to meet energy saving and carbon reduction targets in the first three years of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) will be prohibited from adding new steel capacity in the remaining two years (2024-2025).