China Fires Up Its Furnaces While Diggers and Oil Drills Slow
- Oil, coal output shrink in 2016; metals, fuel processing grows
- Outlook for 2017 depends on supply-side reforms: CRU Group
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China may be mining less coal and pumping less crude but it’s processing more raw materials than ever in its mills, refineries and smelters.
Cost pressures and environmental regulation curbed domestic crude and coal output last year while economic stimulus propelled steel making, aluminum smelting and oil refining to record levels. The outlook for 2017 depends on the pace of supply-side reforms aimed at shifting away from heavy industry to a consumer-led economy, according to Susan Gao, head of consulting at CRU Group in China.