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China Baowu Steel Group Co (Baowu), China’s largest steel producer, is actioning a plan to advance electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking, with many EAF steel projects currently under study at its subsidiaries nationwide, a Baowu official confirmed.
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India, now the second largest steel production country in the world, is expected to see its rude steel output grow by about 6% on year to 113 million tonnes in 2019, slightly higher than the 5.1% year-on-year rise for 2018, Nishtha Mukerjee, Head of Research from SteelMint – an Indian steel market intelligence provider, shared at the Asia Steel Forum 2019 on September 19 in Shanghai, China.
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Most Chinese electric arc furnace (EAF) steel producers won’t be turning off their equipment for the country’s week-long National holiday over October 1-7 but will continue to maintain normal production, several mill officials told Mysteel Global on Thursday.
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More details have emerged about the major expansion being planned by Baosteel Desheng Stainless Steel Co (Desheng) that could see the company’s capacity triple to nearly 6 million tonnes/year. But crucially, the project’s timeline remains vague, Mysteel Global has learned.
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The climb in steel scrap prices is placing more pressure on China’s domestic electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmakers, squeezing their profit margins at a time when prices of EAF-made rebar have fallen to around Yuan 30/tonne ($4.2/t) on average, Mysteel Global has learned.
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China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has approved a new coking coal project in Lvliang city in North China’s Shanxi province, according to a recent notification the administration has released. Named the Wujiamao mine and expected to have a raw coal capacity of 3 million tonnes/year, the project is one of very few new coking coal mines Beijing has approved this year.
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China’s graphite electrode market has been in steady retreat over the past month, with Mysteel’s benchmark price for 600mm ultra-high-power (UHP) grade electrodes in East China’s Jiangsu province sliding further by Yuan 2,500/tonne ($352/t) or 5.1% on month to hit a 27-month low of Yuan 47,000/t including the 13% VAT as of September 11.
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Donghai Steel Group in Tangshan city in North China’s Hebei province, is planning to build a new 4 million tonne/year electric arc furnace-based steel mill in South China’s Guangdong province, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.
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Handan Iron & Steel Group Co (Hangang), a subsidiary of China’s second largest steel producer Hebei Iron & Steel Group (HBIS) and located in Handan city, North China’s Hebei province, is shutting the older of its two steelworks in the city centre and using the scrapped capacity to build a new works in a county nearby, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.
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The ecology and environment department of North China’s Shanxi province has stated again that if by October 1, coke plants in the province are unable to meet the ultra-low emission standards decided by Beijing, as a penalty those makers who fail will be required to idle their operations until their plants are rectified, or their businesses might even be shut, according to a post by the department seen by Mysteel Global.
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The blast furnace capacity utilization rate among the 247 blast-furnace steelmakers across China hit a ten-week high of 82.95% over August 30-September 5, or up another 1.35 percentage points on week, as the curbing on steel mills in North China’s Hebei province was not as harsh as in August, Mysteel’s latest weekly survey indicated.
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Hebei Jinxi Iron & Steel Group (Jinxi), China’s leading section steel producer headquartered in Beijing, is planning to relocate its steelworks in Tangshan, in North China’s Hebei province, to Fangchenggang city in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, according to a recent announcement from Jinxi’s controlling shareholder, China Oriental Group Co (Oriental) on September 3.
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The merchant coke prices in China’s major consumption bases are likely to hover low throughout September, as coke supply is expected to outgrow the added demand from steel mills nationwide, according to market sources on September 4.
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Domestic prices of steel scrap are likely to stay rangebound this month, Chinese market watchers said Wednesday, citing mainly the notable fall in scrap usage among steelmakers.
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China will adopt “carrot and stick” approach to accelerate the closure of coal mines with their raw coal capacity at or lower than 300,000 tonnes/year so as to curtail their number of such coal mines within 800 by 2021, according to a recent joint statement released by six related ministries responsible for the mission.
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A greenfield steel project in East Malaysia backed by Chinese interests is progressing, albeit very slowly, suggests a recent post by the project’s prime contractor, Metallurgical Corporation of China. MCC was announcing that it had just visited the planned site for the works in Sarawak, and had exchanged views with local officials, Mysteel Global notes.
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Hebei province in North China aims to eliminate 9.99 million tonnes/year of iron and steel capacity within 2019, provincial government officials confirmed on Tuesday, suggesting that the largest steel production province in China is on a steady path to curb its steel-related capacity.
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Shagang Group, China’s largest privately-owned steelmaker headquartered at Zhangjiagang, East China’s Jiangsu province, is slashing all list prices of its long steel products for sales over September 1-10 from the prior ten-day period, with the largest reduction being the Yuan 250/tonne ($35/t) cut it is making to its rebar price, according to the company’s latest pricing policy.
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The blast furnace capacity utilization among China’s 247 blast-furnace steel companies slipped further for the third week over August 23-29, down another 0.47 percentage point on week to 81.6% amid requested restrictions and self-disciplinary efforts among Chinese steel mills.
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Bangladesh is expected to see its demand for steel and therefore steel scrap grow steadily amid the South Asian country’s strong domestic economic growth and its programme of infrastructure construction, Sanjoy Kumar Ghosh, senior manager, Supply Chain Management at Chittagong-based long steel maker BSRM Group of Companies, shared on August 29 at SteelMint’s 4th Steel Scrap, Billet, and DRI Trade Summit in Bangkok, Thailand.
