Workers wearing face masks work next to a furnace at a steel plant in Hangzhou, Zhejiang.
BEIJING Reuters -- China's annual crude steel production fell for the first time in six years in 2021, retreating from record levels in 2020 as the country steps up its efforts to contain emissions in its mammoth ferrous sector.
The world's biggest steel producer produced 1.03 billion tons of crude steel last year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics NBS shows on Monday, a decline of 3% from the 1.065 billion tonne output in 2020.
Since the beginning of 2021, the industry had been urged to keep full-year steel production at no more than the previous year's levels to reduce pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions, as the country vowed to reach its carbon peak by 2030.
The target was not achieved as strong downstream demand from the construction and manufacturing sectors boosted profits at mills and sent China's steel output nearly 12% higher than the same period in 2020.
Since July, steel production has started to contract on an annual and monthly basis when the government tightened environmental controls. An unexpected power shortage - fuelling raw material prices and a debt crisis in the property market - has slowed demand for the industrial metal.
In the second half of 2021, China made 470.86 million tons of crude steel, a decline of 16% from July-December a year earlier.
December's average daily output was 2.78 million tons, a jump more than 20% from a month earlier, according to the NBS data.
Analysts expect the coming Lunar New Year and Beijing Winter Olympics to weigh on production before consumption picks up after the holidays.
A government consultancy predicted that China's steel demand will fall a bit this year, and crude steel production will dip around 0.7% from 2021.