As the world's biggest steel producer, China generates over half of global output every year, or more than twice the combined output of the next four leading steel makers: Japan, India, the United States and Russia put together.
It's estimated the country's steel output for this year will reach 1.2 billion tonnes, but only half of this can be used.
One of the priorities of the Chinese government is to eliminate outdated capacity in the industry, but so far efforts to achieve this don't seem to be paying off, largely due to regional protectionism.
In many cases, local steel makers have even expanded their production levels to avoid being shut down.
