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Tungsten miners in Jiangxi province have agreed to halt output until around mid-February to help firm up concentrate prices.
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Shanghai Jinneng International Trade Co. Ltd., the Chinese silicon trading house with the lowest U.S. anti-dumping duty, has halted exports to the United States due to low prices.
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At least three major cobalt producers in China have exited the spot concentrates import market for the rest of the year.
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Baosteel Group Corp. Ltd. has slashed ex-works flat product prices by up to 1,000 yuan ($146) per tonne for December production as Chinese steelmakers take action to run down stockpiles.
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Several smelters in Guangxi province, are the latest to be shut down by Chinese authorities as a result of an arsenic poisoning incident, sources said.
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Tonghua Iron & Steel (Group) Co. Ltd. plans to start trial production at its 400,000-tonne-a-year non-grain-oriented electrical steel project this December.
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China’s steel industry’s opposition to BHP Billiton’s bid to take over fellow Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto continues despite Australian authorities concluding the combination wouldn’t distort the seaborne iron ore market.
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China’s Hebei Steel Group, the newly merged entity of Tangshan Iron & Steel Group and Handan Iron & Steel Group Co. Ltd., will set up a trading arm in Beijing by the end of this year."For the time being, we are working out of Tangshan city (Hebei province) as it is not convenient to do any renovation while Beijing is still holding the Paralympics, but we will probably move both the iron ore import and steel export businesses to Beijing by the end of this year," a Hebei Steel import and export executive said.Hebei Steel’s merger has been moving at a fairly good pace compared with the Anben Iron & Steel Group Corp. and Shandong Iron & Steel Group mergers, which haven’t been making much progress.Hebei Steel comprises seven steel companies Tangshan Iron & Steel, Handan Iron & Steel, Chengde Iron & Steel Co. Ltd., Hengshui Steel Sheet Co., Shougang Jingtang United Iron & Steel Co. Ltd., Wuyang Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. and Xuanhua Iron & Steel Co.In July, it produced 3.07 million tonnes of steel, up 13.1 percent from the same month last year, and 2.64 million tonnes of finished steel, a 10.3-percent increase, according to its Web site.
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Hengshui Steel Sheet Co. plans to triple its cold-rolling capacity to 800,000 tonnes a year, a company executive said.The company—20-percent owned by Handan Iron & Steel Group Co. Ltd., which is merging into Hebei Steel Group—will target sheet as its core product, he said.It currently operates a 250,000-tonne-a-year cold-rolling mill, including a 100,000-tonne tinplate line that started on April 15 and produced up to 150,000 tonnes as of August. Plans for another line will begin after the cold-rolling expansion is done, he added.
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Xiangtan Iron & Steel Group Co. Ltd. plans to raise its crude steel capacity by 33 percent to 8 million tonnes a year, an executive of the major Chinese plate producer said."We are going to add new steelmaking facilities, which could be commissioned by October next year," the executive said.The expansion will include a 120-tonne converter and a continuous slab caster. As part of its expansion plan, the Hunan-based mill also is scheduled to start a 5-meter heavy and wide plate mill by November 2011.Construction hasn’t yet started, according to China Metallurgical Construction Group Corp., China’s leading steelmaking facilities contractor, which has been awarded the contract to install the new steelmaking and rolling facilities.Xiangtan’s crude steel capacity currently stands at 6 million tonnes per year and it operates two plate mills with a combined capacity of up to 3 million tonnes a year. The company is a unit of Hunan Valin Steel Group, which produced 11.12 million tonnes of crude steel last year.
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China’s earthquake-hit Sichuan province will need 37 million tonnes of steel for reconstruction efforts in the next three years, according to local provincial officials.
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Wuhan Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. and Anshan Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. reported net income rose significantly in the first half of the year, though margins were hit by ballooning costs of steelmaking raw materials.
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Chances are slim that China will resume tax-free tolling of imported copper concentrates this year, although discussions are still under way, sources said.
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Market sources are doubtful that ArcelorMittal SA, Luxembourg, will succeed in its bid to take over Hong Kong-listed China Oriental Group Co. Ltd., although the world’s top steelmaker is keeping its hopes alive.
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Environmental concerns have led Chinese authorities to shut 10 crude indium smelters with a combined monthly output of 500 to 700 kilograms in Hunan province, market sources said.
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Steel mills in eastern China’s Shandong province have been forced to cut output due to an electricity shortage.
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The Chinese government will order further steel production cuts at plants near Beijing if air pollution reaches an unacceptable level ahead of the Olympic Games.
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Contrary to recent European market speculation, most Chinese steel exporters say it is unlikely that China’s government will raise steel export taxes soon.
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China’s biggest zinc smelters have decided not to proceed with a rumored third-quarter production cut because they think the market is strong enough to justify current output levels, industry sources said.