Liaoning Province-based Chinese steelmaker Anshan Iron and Steel Group (Anshan) has announced that it will implement 70-day maintenance on its 3,200 cubic meter blast furnace as of March 4, which will impact 420,000 mt of iron-smelting output in total. It will also run maintenance on its 2,150 mm hot rolling line for 55 days as of March 16, impacting 715,000 mt of hot rolled coil output. Moreover, the producer will temporarily stop operation of two CRC lines - lines No.1 and No. 3. Anshan said that this will be the largest-scale maintenance this year. The maintenance will be “in accordance with the company's annual repair plan and based on adequate preparations for epidemic prevention and control,” the producer said in its statement.
Chinese steel mills have faced much higher inventories, still weak domestic demand and disruptions in raw material transportation recently. As of February 20, domestic inventories of hot rolled coils (HRC) and cold rolled coils (CRC) in China amounted to 2.53 million mt and 1.57 million mt, increasing by 25.2 percent and 19.6 percent compared to February 10, respectively, according to the recent information from the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA).