Rise in local prices sees China steel mills ramp up output

Shanghai

THE rest of the world's steel producers may be pressuring Beijing to slash output and help reduce a global glut that is causing losses and costing jobs, but the opposite is happening in the steel towns of China.

While the Chinese government points to reductions in steel-making capacity it has engineered, a rapid rise in local prices this year has seen mills ramp up output. Even "zombie" mills, which stopped production but were not closed down, have been resurrected.