China to cut steel capacity by 45 million tonnes this year: state planner
Capacity cuts would involve relocating 700,000 jobs in coal and 180,000 steel workers
China plans to cut steel production capacity this year by 45 million tonnes and lower coal output capacity by 280 million tonnes, the head of the country’s top economic planner said yesterday.
The capacity cuts would involve relocating 700,000 workers in the coal sector and 180,000 workers in the steel industry, Xu Shaoshi, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at the World Economic Forum in the northern city of Tianjin.
Xu was “very confident” that China would achieve the 2016 targets.
“The most urgent task is reducing excess capacity,” he said.
The government has vowed to tackle price-sapping supply gluts in major industrial sectors and said in February that it would close between 50 million to 100 million tonnes of steel capacity and 500 million tonnes of coal production within three to five years.
The government plans to allocate 100 billion yuan (HK$120 billion) to help local authorities and state-owned firms finance layoffs in the two sectors this year and in 2017, with 20 per cent of the total used to reward high achievers.