Hebei's capacity cut plan would aid fundamentals: IHS

摘要

China's plans to close almost 200 million metric tons of annual steel production capacity in Hebei province by 2020 to more than halve current capacity would be a major significant move and improve longer-term fundamentals for the sector, while being a challenge to implement, economists IHS Global Insight said on Thursday. Hebei governor Zhang Qingwei's plans include by the end of 2017, closing capacity of 60 million mt of steel, 60 million mt of cement, 40 million mt of coal, and 36 million cases of plate glass. Hebei accounted for around 22% of national steel supply in 2014, down from 25% in 2012, IHS Global Insight said.