Heilongjiang Province-based Chinese steelmaker Xilin Iron and Steel Group (Xilin Steel) has announced that its 1,260 cubic meter blast furnace on which construction was completed last year will be commissioned in early April. The designed annual output capacity of the blast furnace is 1.02 million mt. Xilin Steel expects its finished steel output capacity to reach 4.50-5.00 million mt in 2012, rising to 5.50-6.00 million mt in 2013.
Meanwhile, construction work on phase two of the steelmaker's technology innovation project, valued at a cost of RMB 800 million ($126.80 million), will start in the near future. The phase two project consists of one 1,260 cubic meter blast furnace, one 120 mt converter and a high-speed wire rod production line with an annual output capacity of 1 million mt. Annual sales revenues from the completed phase two are expected to reach RMB 4.8 billion ($760.81 million).