Global steel production increased in November but China's production-limited ini

Industry data released on Wednesday showed that global crude steel output increased by 3.7% in November, but China's efforts to shut down polluting steel mills in the hope of blue sky will be expected to curb output.

In a statement, the International Iron and Steel Institute said the global crude steel output of 66 countries included in the statistics of the association reached 136.3 million tons in November, up from 131.5 million tons in the same period of last year.

The association data show that in November China's crude steel production rose 2.2% year on year to 66.2 million tons. However, data from China show that crude steel output in China dropped to a nine-month low in November. China's steel output accounts for half of global production.

International Iron and Steel Institute data also show that in November the global steel plant capacity utilization increased from 69.2% a year earlier to 70.7%, as China cut steel production capacity.

China said it has shut down 110 million tons of legal capacity and 120 million tons of illicit capacity from the beginning of last year. Coupled with strong demand, this helped to boost steel prices and capacity utilization of global mills.

However, the association does not expect China's demand for steel to grow next year because of government spending on infrastructure shrinking and rebuilding its efforts to strike a balance between economic development and environmental protection.