China’s green steel dream disappears

Tuesday 17 June 2025

Slowly but surely, iron ore is breaking down.

Yesterday’s May output data was the weakest in six years.

Yet, it is not yet doomsday, except, perhaps, for the climate. China has abandoned any pretence of a green steel transition. The output falls are equally large in BOF and EAF, but the Five Year Plan was supposed to grow the latter to 350mt, some 200mt higher.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.