CISA officials who have been cautious about putting a date on when Chinese steel production would peak and had previously said it could happen by the end of the decade, this week said that China's steel industry needs to speed up its restructuring by slashing excess capacity, improving efficiency and switching to higher quality products, with output now approaching its peak

Mr Zhang Guangning chairman of the China Iron & Steel Association told its annual meeting on Monday that “China's steel sector has already entered a period of peaking and flattening out.”

Mr Zhang said the country's slowing rate of growth had piled pressure on the sector, and it now needed to take rapid action to improve its competitiveness and focus on quality rather than quantity.

CISA now estimates that Chinese steel output reached about 815 million tonnes in 2014, lower than its revised figure of 822 million for 2013.

However, Mr Li Xinchuang, CISA's vice secretary general, had forecast in December that Chinese steel production would rise to 834 million tonnes in 2015 and Chinese steel consumption was expected to increase 1.4 percent to 720 million tonnes, with growth slowing from 2.5 percent in 2014.

China's total capacity stands at around 1.2 billion tonnes but expansion has slowed considerably, with some analysts estimating that only about 10 million tonnes from new plants would come into operation this year.