CHINA’S efforts to cut large amounts of steel and coal capacity were still lagging by the end of July, the People’s Daily reported Friday, citing figures from a government meeting.

    China has promised to slash steel capacity by 45 million tons and coal capacity by 250 million tons this year, as it tries to rejuvenate the two industries suffering from slowing demand and a massive supply glut.

    A working meeting on resolving overcapacity in the steel and coal sectors Thursday revealed that China had reached 47 percent of its annual target for steel and just 38 percent for coal by the end of July, the newspaper said.

    The meeting reiterated China’s commitment to ban capacity increases of all kinds and to punish enterprises that break the rules. It also called on local authorities to do a better job of relocating unemployed workers, disposing of company debt and allocating subsidies.

    Chinese steel production fell 1.1 percent in the first half of the year, but improving prices drove June output to a record 2.316 million tons a day, sparking fears that firms were defying closure orders and restarting operations. Coal output stood at 1.6 billion tons from January to June, down 9.7 percent year on year.(SD-Agencies)