Posted on 21 Mar 2023
Steel producers in Tangshan, China's top steel production base in North China's Hebei province, are again being ordered to observe emergency restrictions on their sintering operations starting Monday, as part of the city's efforts to combat air pollution in coming days. The new measures were announced just ten days after the last round of curbs ended on March 10, Mysteel Global noted.
The cutbacks took effect from 8:00 on March 20 and were in response to a level II emergency warning from the local meteorological administration which advised that wind and climatic conditions in coming days will cause medium to heavy atmospheric pollution over the city, according to the city government.
The notice did not clarify when the constraints would be lifted, however.
"Some steelmakers have already curtailed their sintering operations by 30-50% in accordance with the order," according to a market source familiar with the local market. "For now, no constraints have been imposed on blast-furnace operations, however," she added.
An air-quality forecast posted on the website of China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment also predicted that Tangshan would experience mild to medium atmospheric pollution over March 20-21, and that air quality would recover to a good level over March 22-24.
As of March 15, sintering capacity utilization among the 13 Tangshan steel mills surveyed by Mysteel averaged 85.57% or 244,700 tonnes/day, while the stocks of sintering fines at the surveyed mills were sufficient for about three days of consumption.
However, if the mills' sintering capacity utilization rate drops to 50% due to production curbs, the sintering fines inventories should last the mills for eight days, Mysteel estimated.
Handan city, another major steel-production base in Hebei, also intensified its efforts to control air pollution by imposing emergency curbs on local mills' sintering facilities from March 17, with many mills planning to cut their sintering operations by 50%, Mysteel learned from market sources.
Source:Mysteel Global
