China's drive to achieve peak carbon by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060 will likely mean a higher steel industry concentration ratio in time, sources told Fastmarkets.
This means that the share of total crude steel production by major steel producers will increase, leading to low-carbon steel production via unified research, development efforts for low-carbon technology and improved production efficiency, sources said.China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a formal document early in 2021 that China's ultimate aim is to achieve 40% industry concentration ratio by the the top five steelmakers and 60% industry concentration ratio by the top 10 steelmakers by 2025. Meanwhile, some Chinese state-owned steel mills have listed "steel concentration" strategies in their own carbon neutral plans in the first half of 2021.Mergers for decarbonization technology and efficiencyMergers and acquisitions in the steel industry have played an important role in China's attempts to shift to high-quality capacity by cutting old and low-technology capacity in the past...