beijing dec 15 reuters  chinas crude steel output fell for the sixth consecutive month in november slipping 32 from october official data showed on wednesday as production restrictions to combat pollution continued and construction demand remained stagnant the worlds top steel producer made 6931 million tonnes of the industrial metal last month compared with octobers output of 7158 million tonnes that was down 22 from the same month a year earlier according to the national bureau of statistics nbs average daily crude steel output in november stood at 231 million tonnes recovering fractionally from average output of 2309 million tonnes in october according to reuters calculations based on the nbs data china had capped steel output in the first 10 months of 2020 at a level lower than a year earlier in a bid to reduce pollution production especially in northern areas has been curbed as beijing works to improve air quality during the winter heating season and ahead of the winter olympics capacity utilisation rates of blast furnaces at 247 steel plants across the country had been running around 76 in november well below an average of 92 in november 2020 according to mysteel consultancy steel production controls had been marginally relaxed in october the downward trend for downstream demand squeezed profits and in turn steel firms continued to cut output citic futures analysts wrote in a note before the data was released the analysts expect chinas overall molten iron output to fall around 25 million tonnes this year from 2020 in the first 11 months of the year china made 94636 million tonnes of steel down 26 from the same period a year earlier the nbs data showed reporting by min zhang and dominique patton editing by shri navaratnam and kenneth maxwell