China announced that it had terminated steel production in all the country's illegal induction furnaces by the end of June last year.
The majority of the operators in China are primarily small size private mills that use low quality scrap to produce substandard rebar. These rebars are mixed with grade III (HRB400) rebar and sold at a discount to construction contractors. For a long period, the government had neither record nor control of these private mills. Not only had they jeopardized the quality of building standards, but were able to force prices and eventually production down at state-owned mills during the construction and wider steel downturn between 2013 and 2016.
According to China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data, CISA produced 64% of the country's rebar in...