Taiwan's steelmakers shrug off summer power curbs
Steelmakers in Taiwan say they have taken steps to guarantee that steel output is not impacted by the start of this year’s power supply rationalization scheme for summer which kicked in from June 1 and remain in force until September 30.
The Taiwanese government usually restricts power usage by industrial consumers, including electric furnace steelmakers, to guarantee electricity supply to citizens between 10 am and 5pm during the four summer months to end-September, as Mysteel has reported. Carbon and stainless steel producers operating EAFs are required to cooperate with the local government to divert electricity from industry to homes to meet the peaks in household electricity consumption during that period.
Dragon Steel Corporation (DSC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Steel Corporation and headquartered in Taichung city, Central Taiwan, started to implement the staggering of its power consumption from June 1 as directed. Nevertheless, DSC’s steel output during the power cut period will not be affected as the mill will make full use of the off-peak hours between 5pm and 10am to produce, according to a company official, adding that routine maintenance of the facilities will be arranged once a week during the daytime power restrictions.
DSC is an integrated steel plant with two blast furnaces and a 1 million tonnes/year DC electric arc furnace, according to the company’s website. The steelmaker has no major equipment rationalization or revamping plans currently.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer Feng Hsin Steel, also headquartered in Taichung city, said their finished steel output will not be affected too much by the power supply constraints during that period as they have planned ahead and stocked some billet for rebar production when power supplies are limited, as Mysteel has reported.
Steel demand from downstream users in Taiwan remains steady for now, partly because of smooth progress with governmental public works projects amid the fine spring weather across the island. However, both steel makers and traders are keeping an eye on a new typhoon which formed to the north-east of the Philippines late Thursday and is seen tracking up Taiwan’s east coast over June 10-11 depending on its speed.
The island was unaffected by Typhoon Ewiniar which brought heavy rain and strong winds to South China’s Guangdong province over June 7-9, Mysteel notes.
Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com
Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com
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