All small-sized blast furnaces in Linfen to be closed by end 2007

SteelOrbis Shanghai Recently, Shanxi Province's Environmental Protection Bureau put forward a plan, requiring steel mills and coking plants in Linfen to shut down their blast furnaces (<200 m3) by the end of 2007. According to its steel industry policy released in July 2005, the Shanxi government is strengthening its environmental protection measures in relation to small-sized steel mills and coking plants. By the end of September, a total of 42 blast furnaces in Xiangfen County had been inspected, of which 35 were required to shut down before 2007. The new industry policy released by the China Iron & Steel Association last year has not been fully implemented. Shanxi Province is the major production area for Chinese coking coal and coke, whose export accounts for more than 60 percent of coke trading in the global market. Shanxi Province's environmental protection measures will have some impact on the future coke price. However, since steel production in Shanxi is not as important, the environmental measures will not change the current supply and demand relationship in steel in China. However, if other provinces or cities also follow Shanxi's example, the market will gradually see the effects.