China will “strictly prohibit” the expansion of new iron and steel projects in 2019, the country’s industry minister told the official Xinhua agency in an interview on Thursday. Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology, said the capacity expansion ban would also apply to the cement and flat-glass industries, which were already subject to restrictions in 2018, while newly added primary aluminum capacity would continue to be “strictly controlled”. A transcript of the interview did not specify what Miao meant by a “new” project but China, the world’s top producer of both steel and aluminum, has been clamping down on new industrial capacity built without the necessary approvals in its fight against pollution. The country last March set a target to cut around 30 million tonnes of annual […]