Beijing starts China's 14th five-year development planning
The session, being held over October 26 – 29, is a major political event where proposals for a development blueprint will be reviewed to chart the course for the future, according to Xinhua. At the session, topics regarding the country's economic, political, cultural, and health development will be discussed.
The nation's steel industry, being crucial to the national economy and especially a key voice in the carbon emissions debate, will probably be included in the planning too, Mysteel Global understands.
The Xinhua report made little mention of the ongoing session either in English or Chinese news service, though the agency posted a news report on the evening of October 25, highlighting the country's achievements during the 13th five-year planning period spanning 2016-2020.
In the 13th five-year plan period, Xinhua highlighted that China's economy is approaching Yuan 100 trillion ($15 billion) or $10,000 per capita, and that the country "has the world's largest middle-income population and is set to end absolute poverty". Significantly, it also mentioned that the country had accomplished all the pollution control goals set the five years.
In a surprise announcement in late September, President Xi Jinping pledged that the country's carbon emissions will hit the climax by 2030 and that the country will be carbon neutral by 2060, as Mysteel Global reported.
The declaration has since then hooked the attention of steel market participants in and out of China, wondering whether Beijing will promote higher scrap utilization in steelmaking, speed up the replacement of blast furnaces with electric arc furnaces, and adopt new energy sources such as hydrogen in coming years – and if yes, how soon the execution will be rolled out.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology disclosed recently that by the end of this year, the central government may release the updated version of its steel industry guidelines, which will further tighten controls over the "capacity swap" scheme relating to steel mills' new steel projects, as reported. Many in the market are interpreting the updated guidelines are in essence the "preparation for the future", Mysteel Global noted.
Written by Hongmei Li, li.hongmei@mysteel.com
Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com
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