[SMM Analysis] Jiangsu Environmental Protection Supervision upgrade East China Steel leads the country

SMM News: since April, Jiangsu Province has begun to strictly investigate environmental protection, and the intensity of supervision has been increasing. East China is affected by environmental inspection, supply reduction, the market often lack of specifications, the current environmental production restrictions are still in continuous fermentation. Affected by the production restrictions in eastern China (Shanghai, Hangzhou) thread prices rose by hundreds a month, leading the country.

[Xuzhou] on 9 April, the Jiangsu Provincial "263" Office and the Provincial Environmental Protection Department jointly carried out special assistance and key supervision actions for the prevention and control of air pollution in Xuzhou, because of the ineffective prevention and control of air pollution. The discipline Inspection Commission and Supervisory Commission of Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, recently investigated 45 responsible personnel, of whom 33 were punished for party discipline and government affairs, and 12 were organized and dealt with.

SMM analysis: affected by this, all steel mills in Xuzhou area are out of production. According to SMM data, the total monthly output of steel mills in Xuzhou area is 850000 tons, of which threads account for about 70 per cent, about 600000 tons, and the average daily output affected by the shutdown is about 26000 tons. According to feedback from steel mills, this round of environmental inspection is likely to continue for a period of one to two months, during which time it is difficult for steel mills to have the opportunity to resume production.

[Lianyungang] Jiangsu Environmental Protection Agency said that on the evening of the 18th, CCTV's "Economic half-hour" column reported environmental pollution problems in three chemical parks (Yanwei Port, Duigou Port and Chenjiagang) in Guanyun County, Lianyungang. In response to the report, the Jiangsu Provincial Environmental Protection Department held a meeting overnight to set up a task force to rush to Lianyungang to thoroughly investigate the environmental pollution problems reflected by the media in the park.

SMM analysis: as a result of this, Lianyungang A Steel Plant plans to shut down all production from April 26 to May 1, resume production of a blast furnace around May 10, and B Steel Plant also plans to overhaul a converter from April 27 to 30. It is expected to affect about 8000 tons of hot metal.

[Changzhou, Huaian, Zhenjiang] on April 25, the Jiangsu Provincial Environmental Protection Department released a message saying that in order to better implement environmental protection, three provincial environmental inspection teams have been set up to carry out the third batch of environmental inspection inspections in Changzhou, Huaian, and Zhenjiang cities, respectively, as of April 24. The environmental inspection teams of the three provinces have all completed the inspection and positioning. The provincial environmental protection inspector will be stationed for about one month, and the inspection time will be from April 24 to May 23. during the period of entry, each inspection team will set up special duty telephones and postal mailboxes to accept letters and calls from the environmental protection aspects of the inspected community cities.

SMM analysis: affected by this, a large steel in Changzhou plans to limit sintering production by 50%, and other steels in the jurisdiction will also cooperate with the suspension of production, and the specific resumption time will also depend on the air quality in Changzhou area. According to the historical information of SMM Iron and Steel, from April 1 to 15, the steel has been repaired, so the steel reserves part of the raw materials, the short-term actual impact on the production of hot metal is limited.

Chen Zhipeng, member of the party group and deputy director of the Provincial Environmental Protection Department, said bluntly that four problems are particularly prominent in the areas along the Yangtze River in our province: first, the industrial structure is still biased. About 2% of the province's heavy chemical production capacity is concentrated on both sides of the Yangtze River, and the total amount of wastewater discharged from the eight cities along the Yangtze River accounts for 74% of the province's total. Second, the environmental risk is becoming more and more prominent. Along the Yangtze River, there are more than 700 chemical enterprises and more than 110 chemical terminals, with an annual transit of more than 200 million tons of dangerous chemicals, crisscross between sewage outlets and water intakes, and superposition of land and water risks. Third, the water quality of tributaries into the river is worrying. In the first quarter, the water quality of tributaries into the Yangtze River decreased by 53.3%, down 16.5 percentage points, and the proportion of inferior Ⅴ was 20%, up 10.7 percentage points. the situation is not optimistic. Fourth, the problem of environmental violations is still prominent. Although in recent years we have continued to step up law enforcement and severely crack down on environmental crimes, the incidence of illegal cases is still high.

SMM analysis: on April 25, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited the Yangtze River by boat, boarded a ship at the Jingzhou Port wharf, went down the river, and inspected the ecological environment, development, and construction along the Yangtze River. We will listen to reports on shipping and waterway regulation of the Yangtze River, river regime control and bank revetment projects, and the regulation of illegal docks. Jiangsu Province, as the estuary of the Yangtze River, is an important part of the Yangtze River Basin management, so it is reasonable to strengthen the environmental protection supervision in Jiangsu Province in the near future. According to SMM analysis, the environmental inspection in eight cities along the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province (Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Changzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Nantong, etc.) is expected to last for several weeks. at present, the area says that production is normal for the time being and has not yet received news of the shutdown of steel mills.

So far, 11 of the 13 cities in Jiangsu Province will be inspected by environmental inspection teams in the coming month, and the production of steel mills will be restricted to a certain extent. As far as the current situation is concerned, with the exception of a significant reduction in supply in northern Jiangsu, the impact in the rest of the region is relatively limited, and SMM Steel will continue to follow up.

Reporting by Zhang Qian, SMM of SMM