China to tighten oversight of energy use in steel, aluminium

China's industry ministry said on Monday it would compile records this year on energy consumption by key enterprises in energy-intensive industries such as steel, aluminium and cement in order to help promote conservation and efficiency.

These will include details of production and capacity in 2020 and total energy consumption, broken down into coal, natural gas, electricity and renewable energy, a Ministry of Industry and Information Technology document showed.

The move comes as some aluminium smelters in Inner Mongolia have reduced output to meet regional energy consumption targets and top steel city Tangshan called for production cuts of 30-50% at most of its long-processing mills this year to help China meet its goals of peaking emissions by 2030.

The ministry also said on its website that it would carry out inspections to ensure that tiered electricity pricing systems for the aluminium, steel and cement sectors were being properly implemented.