SteelOrbis Shanghai
Baosteel and Handan Steel are to ink a formal agreement on May 10 to establish a 50-50 joint venture for the construction of a five million mt sheet production plant, to be located near Handan Steel's existing facilities in Hebei Province - according to the reports.
In January 2006, China's National Development and Reform Commission approved Handan Steel's project for the new plant, which will involve an estimated total investment of RMB 19.4 billion ($2.52 billion). A 4.6 million mt high-quality sheet production line will be built just to the west of Handan Steel's headquarters. The facility will include a 2,250 mm HR concasting unit, a 2,030 mm CR concasting unit, and a coating production line. Meanwhile, in the context of the iron making preparation system, two six meter coke furnaces, two 300 m2 sintering machines, and two rotary kilns will be constructed. Furthermore, the site will have two 3,200 m3 blast furnaces, two 200 mt combined blown converters and molten iron pre-treatment devices, a steelmaking refining furnace and some other facilities.
The new plant will mainly produce pipeline steel, auto sheet, household appliance sheet and other products. Handan Steel's main Hebei Province facilities are expected to achieve a total sheet production capacity of 7.44 million mt per annum by the end of the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period (2012). This figure includes 2.995 million mt of HR coils, 210,000 mt of HR pickled coils, 1.485 million mt of CR coils, 1.11 million mt of hot-dip galvanized coils, 440,000 mt of color coated coils, 800,000 mt of medium plate, and 400,000 mt of electrical steel sheet.
The construction work for the new project began in March this year and is expected to reach completion in 2010. The first stage of the project, mainly involving the iron system, coke furnace, sintering furnace and HR concasting production line, will be finished in 2008. Work in the second stage will focus on the CR production line.
Meanwhile, the National Development and Reform Commission has urged Handan Steel to eliminate out-of-date equipment and production capacities, including 1.71 million mt of pig iron production, 2.14 million mt of crude steel, and 2.04 million mt of finished steel.