Tangshan plan to close seven blast furnaces seen as having little impact

摘要

Tangshan city, a steelmaking hub in northern China's Hebei province, recently announced plans to permanently close seven 450 cu m blast furnaces of a total pig iron making capacity of 3.85 million mt/ year in March, in a bid to improve the city's air quality. However, the impact on China's overall pig iron production will be temporary and negligible, with more new blast furnaces due to be commissioned in March and the following months. The seven blast furnaces are located at four steel mills -- Yanshan Iron & Steel, Tanggang Stainless Steel, Huaxi Iron & Steel and Ronxin Iron & Steel. Two of the seven blast furnaces had already been closed. The closure of the remaining five blast furnaces will lead to a daily pig iron output loss of around 7,000 mt.