Tangshan imposes short-term curbs on steel industry again

Tangshan, China’s largest steel producing hub in North China’s Hebei province, has just imposed another round of emergency curbs on local steel mills, foundries, and steel re-rollers over June 10-15 to “combat ozone pollution”, according to a latest notice from the local authority.

Over June 10-15, during 0000-0900, Tangshan steel mills are ordered to halt their sintering plants, and Qian'an and Jingtang steelworks under Shougang Group that have met the ultra-low emissions are exempted, and they can make the decision themselves whether to scale down production too, according to the notice.

Local foundries and steel re-rollers will also adhere to the same timelines for the suspension of their operations, Mysteel Global noted, and this has been a seamless continuation of the previous round over June 7-10.

What is different in the recent two rounds of curbing in Tangshan is that the duration has been hours instead of the whole day though in essence, it is a rather common practice since 2017 for the local authority to adopt short-term restrictive measures to deal with serious air pollution.

“Local steel producers are still under the ongoing long-term restriction on their steelmaking facilities, so the new measures are on top of that, and restrictions on night-hour operations will not disrupt these mills’ production too much,” a local industrial source commented, though it will be effective in reducing air pollution, Mysteel Global noted.

“We have all got used to this now,” she said.

Tangshan Q235 150mm square billet price has been hovering around Yuan 5,000/tonne ($782.5/t) since last May, and as of June 10, it inclined by Yuan 20/t to Yuan 4,980/t EXW including the VAT, but it was Yuan 20/t lower on week.

Starting March 20, a total of 23 Tangshan steel mills have been ordered to reduce the steelmaking capacity by 30-50%, which has affected mainly smaller-sized sintering plants, blast furnaces and converters, and the measure will be in place until the yearend, though the control is supposed to loosen starting July 1, according to the notice by the local government on March 19.

Written by Olivia Zhang, zhangwd@mysteel.com

This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.