An ambitious industry-led project to cut carbon dioxide emissions from steel plants is in danger of foundering on account of the refusal by any of China’s producers, which between them account for more than 40 per cent of world production of the metal, to join the initiative.

The failure to engage the Chinese is even more of an embarrassment for the World Steel Association, the Brussels-based trade body that set up the scheme, since its chairman is the chief executive of one of China’s biggest steelmakers.

Zhang Xiaogang, president of Anshan Iron & Steel, was given the one-year WSA job in October in part to try to win over top Chinese companies to attempts orchestrated mainly by European and US steelmakers to ensure the international industry presented a common front on global issues such as environmental protection and health and safety.