China's steel 'capacity swaps' scheme halted pending new guidelines

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued a notice on August 22, requiring all provincial and regional governments across the country to suspend public disclosures and announcements relating to new steel-production 'capacity swap' plans among steelmakers under their jurisdiction until its revision of the scheme's guidelines is completed.

The current capacity swap guidelines, which took effect on June 1 2021, requires steel mills seeking to introduce new iron- or steelmaking capacity to phase out old facilities of at least the same productive capacity in operation at the time, either capacity that the mill already owns or capacity it