China's bloated steel industry will continue to experience tough times this year despite years of government efforts to address overcapacity in the sector, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Thursday. 

The Chinese government has been at pains to digest production gluts from an investment boom spawned by generous subsidies in the past that saw producers in "favored" sectors, including steel, expand rapidly with little regard for real market demand. 

To gradually solve the problem, a ban of new projects in steel, cement, electrolytic aluminum, flat glass and shipbuilding industries before 2017, and a gradually elimination of existing substandard projects are underway.