Chinese overcapacity is crushing the global steel industry

EACH year, China makes as much steel as the rest of the world combined. The vast scale of its output – around one billion tonnes a year – is obscured by the fact that most of it stays in the country. Lately, however, China’s exports of the metal have surged, reaching 90 million tonnes in 2023, up by 35 per cent on the previous year.

That may be a fraction of China’s total production, but it is more than what America or Japan make in a year. And it is enough to build a thousand Golden Gate bridges.

With China’s economy struggling, its steelmakers are selling abroad at bargain prices, to the distress of foreign competitors and politicians alike.