North China’s Shanxi province released a three-year plan for the steel industry, in accordance with restructuring, green and innovation-driven principles.

The plan from 2015 to 2017 will focus on industrial chain expansion, products structure optimization, energy saving, emission reduction and reorganization, in order to improve the steel industry's competiveness and accelerate its upgrade.

The province will develop five steel bases with production capacity of 10 million tons each in Taiyuan, Linfen, Lvliang, Yuncheng and southeast Shanxi. It also strives to cultivate three or four giant steel groups with competent strengthen and competitiveness in this period.

The plan highlights innovation and development for the steel companies’ restructuring. It will accelerate the market-oriented research mechanisms within steel enterprises by integrating industry, universities and research institutions.

It also encourages companies to spend more on research and establish alliances with other enterprises, research institutions, project designers and customers.

• [Editor:Sophie]