Tangshan steel mills face new round of cuts for Jul, Aug

SHANGHAI, Jul 11 (SMM) – All steel mills in Tangshan will face a fresh round of production cuts from July 20 to August 31, after Tangshan government released official notice on Wednesday July 11. The scheduled restriction period was updated from July 10-31 released on Tuesday July 10. 

This move is part of the municipal government's effort to improve the city's air quality ranking, which currently ranks last among 74 major Chinese cities.

Aiming to reduce the city's atmospheric concentration of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide, the new round will last longer than previous cuts and will affect blast furnaces. This compared with Tangshan's previous short-term, frequent cut that targeted sintering machines and shaft furnaces, and affected the supply of raw materials. 

Tangshan's annual pig iron capacity of 139.59 million mt accounts for 10.6% of China's total output, SMM data showed. 

Details of cuts for each district remains unclear but according to market talk, capacity will be cut by 50% for blast furnaces at steel plants in the districts of Guzhi, Fengrun, Fengnan, and Luan and Yutian counties. The cut will also apply to all sintering machines and shaft furnaces at steel mills in the city.

Just one blast furnace each will be allowed to operate at Tangsteel south, north, and at Tangyin Iron & Steel, SMM learned from the market. Blast furnaces in plants other than the above-mentioned areas will have to cut capacity by 30%. 

Coking duration at all coke plants in the city is required to be extended to 33 hours. All steel rolling plants in Tangshan will be suspended during the restriction period. 

Such restrictions do not apply to plants with dry desulphurisation facilities.

Mills currently adopt rotating production schedules for the non-heating season, SMM learned.

From March 16 to November 14, steel enterprises in the main urban area of Tangshan are required to cut production by 15%, and those beyond the area will cut by 10%. This is according to the 2018 non-heating season production plan for the iron and steel industry in Tangshan.