Measuring the environmental protection efficiency and productivity of the 49 largest iron and steel enterprises in China

China is the largest source of carbon emissions in the world, and the Chinese iron and steel sector is the main contributor to the growth in greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to excessive greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and global warming have seriously threatened the survival of animals, plants and even humans. To cope with global climate problems, it is our responsibility to establish environment-friendly iron and steel enterprises. In this study, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to evaluate the environmental protection performance of China’s iron and steel enterprises based on the panel data during 2015–2017. We first establish an environment-related index system for the industry and build a range-adjusted measure model. Then, the global Malmquist productivity index based on DEA is introduced to analyse environmental efficiency and environmental productivity. The results show that most Chinese iron and steel enterprises achieved high environmental efficiency. However, many enterprises exhibited low environmental productivity and especially Shougang Group, HBIS Tangsteel and Anyang Iron and Steel continued to decline from 2015 to 2017. In general, Valin Hengyang and Shaanxi Iron and Steel achieved better performance in environmental protection. Based on the above results, the environmental problems in our country are still very serious. Thus, the government needs to formulate suitable environmental regulations to reduce the gap between the global frontier and contemporaneous frontier over two periods. Furthermore, entrepreneurs should introduce some advanced environmental technologies to improve their technical level and environmental protection level.