Cutting Excess Capacity

China will continue phasing out substandard production capacity, especially in fields of steel, iron, coal mining and coal-fired power plants, to keep up with targets set for the year. The decision was made at a State Council executive meeting, which was presided over by Premier Li Keqiang on May 10. The meeting decided to adopt more methods based on market rules and related laws while phasing out outdated capacities. It also decided to shut down illegal production facilities and prevent them from restarting again. By the end of June, all facilities producing inferiorquality steel bars will be dismantled. All coal mines scheduled to close this year will stop production by the end of August and will be phased out by the end of November. percent to $18.4 billion, Sun Jiwen, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, told a press conference. Chinese exports to Africa declined 1 percent year on year to $20.5 billion in the first three months of this year, compared with an 18 percent drop in the same period last year, he said. Sun attributed the growth to the implementation of 10 major China-africa cooperation plans proposed at the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-africa Cooperation in 2015, which included interest-free loans and preferential policies.