It has been more than seven years since Beijing declared war on pollution. Until now, this has been a phoney war: much posturing and little action. A crackdown on the highly polluting steel industry is changing that. The consequences for Chinese steelmakers could be severe.

HBIS, China’s second-biggest steelmaker, has shut its plants in Tangshan, the steelmaking hub of Hebei province. This has triggered thousands of lay-offs. The group is reacting to curbs imposed by the authorities of the northern city. Local governments are under intense pressure to help Beijing get plans for long-term carbon neutrality off to a flying start.

Tangshan has ordered production cuts of 30-50 per cent of capacity by the year-end. A similar reduction in crude steel output for the rest of China would mean a cutback of up to 550m tonnes, based on last year’s production of 1.1bn.