China’s steel mills may have taken a wrong turn by adding millions of tonnes of new high-end capacity just as the country’s car sector, a key steel consumer, undergoes its first contraction in decades, cutting metal demand. Hot-rolled coil (HRC), steel that is heat processed into metal sheets used for car bodies and household appliances, was a steady profit driver for mills but orders are now slowing down, two major steel mills and several traders told Reuters. Sliding demand for hot-rolled coil is a further barometer of China’s lagging industrial sector which is struggling with lower profits amid a trade war with the United States. Weakening steel end-user demand will add to the government’s concerns about job layoffs as Chinese economic growth […]