China will shut down more steel and cement plants this year than originally planned to deal with oversupply in capacity, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said yesterday.

This year will see the elimination of 28.7 million tons of annual steel capacity and 50.5 million tons of cement capacity, the ministry said in a statement yesterday. Premier Li Keqiang said in his government report earlier this year that the government had originally targeted 27 million tons of steel and 42 million tons of cement to be terminated.

China's crude steel output rose to a record high of 779 million tons last year.

The government has been phasing out old and inefficient capacity in its industrial sector to revamp its growth model and to fight pollution. The ministry also said 420,000 tons of annual aluminum capacity and 115,000 tons in lead smelting will be eliminated this year.