China’s Laoting Iron and Steel plant owned by Hebei Iron and Steel Group (Hesteel) capped its 3,000 cubic meter blast furnace No 3 on June 25. The capping is part of the group’s plan to reduce capacity and upgrade technology.
The Hebei province in 2019, had also announced its plans to remove capacity above 200mn mt by 2020 to optimise the steel industry. The Beijing-Tianjin-Heibei region accounts for almost 25pc of China’s crude steel production.
In keeping with this plan, Hesteel had rolled out plans for supply-side reforms to avoid a glut of steel, which in turn pressures prices. The steelmaker plans to phase out at least 9.34mn mt of its capacity.