Shandong Province-based Chinese steelmaker Taishan Iron and Steel Group Co. has stated that on August 8 it started dismantling work on its blast furnaces No. 4 and No. 5, both 420 m³. With the removal of the blast furnaces, Taishan Steel's emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides will be reduced by 134 mt and 20 mt per year.
According to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), Shandong Province will eliminate 1.5 million mt of backward iron-making capacities and 4 million mt of backward steelmaking production capacities in 2012.
Currently, Shandong Province has an annual steel production capacity of 67.07 million mt, ranking third among Chinese provinces. In the first half of the current year, Shandong Province produced 29.34 million mt of pig iron, 28.873 million mt of crude steel and 38.635 million mt of finished steel, up 2.3 percent, 0.4 percent and 6.4 percent respectively, all year on year.