Anben overtakes Baosteel as China's biggest

SteelOrbis Shanghai In 2006, under the combined impact of international and domestic demand, China's steel production continued to maintain its trend of fast growth. Last year, China's output of crude steel totaled 418.78 million mt, up 65.33 million mt or 18.5 percent compared with 2005. The national finished steel output for 2006 totaled 466.85 million mt, up 91.72 million mt or 24.5 percent year on year. Finally, 2006 pig iron output totaled 404.17 million mt, up 66.76 million mt or 19.8 percent on the previous year's figure. Due to the newly-added production capacities and the merging and restructuring of various mills, the rankings of the Chinese mills in terms of crude steel output also saw changes in 2006. Based on the 2006 crude steel output figures, Anben Steel Group ranked first in 2006. The details are as follows: 1. Anben Steel Group: 22.56 million mt (crude steel output) In 2005, Anshan Steel ranked 4th (11.9 million mt), while Benxi Steel ranked 14th (6.51 million mt). 2. Baosteel Group: 22.53 million mt Ranked 1st in 2005 (21.79 million mt) 3. Tangshan Steel Group: 19.06 million mt Ranked 2nd in 2005 (16.08 million mt) - including Tangshan Steel, Xuanhua Steel, and Chengde Steel. 4. Shagang Group: 14.63 million mt Includes Huaian Steel. In 2005, Shagang ranked 5th (10.46 million mt), while Huaian Steel ranked 52nd (1.56 million mt). 5. Wuhan Steel Group: 13.76 million mt Ranked 3rd in 2005 (13.04 million mt) - including Wuhan Steel and Ezhou Steel. 6. Jinan Steel Group: 11.24 million mt Ranked 7th in 2005 (10.42 million mt). 7. Maanshan Steel Group: 10.91 million mt Ranked 9th in 2005 (9.65 million mt). 8. Laiwu Steel Group: 10.79 million mt Ranked 8th in 2005 (10.34 million mt). 9. Shougang Group: 10.55 million mt Ranked 6th in 2005 (10.44 million mt). 10. Hualin Group: 9.91 million mt Ranked 10th in 2005 (8.45 million mt) - including Xiangtan Steel, Lianyuan Steel, and Hengyang Steel Pipe. According to the CISA statistics, the three mills that registered the biggest growth in crude steel output in 2006 are: Hengyang Steel Pipe Plant of the Hualin Group which increased output by 123 percent to 900,000 mt; Yingkou Medium Plate Plant, up 59 percent to 2.46 million mt; finally, Xining Special Steel, up 58 percent to 800,000 mt. The three mills that recorded the biggest growth in finished steel output are: Hebei Jingye Group which saw a rise of 115 percent to 890,000 mt; Taiyuan Steel Group Xinlin Steel, up 107 percent to 990,000 mt; and Changzhou Zhongtian, up 96 percent to 2.33 million mt. The three mills that saw the biggest growth in pig iron output are: Xining Special Steel, up 719 percent to 500,000 mt; Shanxi Yujin, up 519 percent to 960,000 mt; and Tianjin Steel Group, up 129 percent to 3.23 million mt. Since the production growth of the medium and small mills was bigger than that of the larger mills, a reduction was observed in the centralization of the Chinese steel industry in 2006. The ratio of the output of the country's top 10 mills to the national output decreased from 37 percent in 2005 to 34.7 percent last year. Furthermore, the crude steel output of Hebei Province continued to occupy the number one spot among the Chinese provinces, with production reaching 90.96 million mt in 2006, up 15.6 million mt or 20.7 percent year on year. In 2nd place, the output of Jiangsu Province totaled 42.02 million mt, up 7.94 million mt or 23.3 percent; in 3rd place, Liaoning Province's steel output totaled 37.98 million mt, up 6.27 million mt or 19.8 percent. The provinces that registered the biggest growth rates are: Qinghao Province (total of 800,000 mt), up 290,000 or 57.5 percent year on year; Guizhou Province (3.33 million mt), up 950,000 mt or 39.8 percent; Henan Province (17.41 million mt), up 4.92 million mt or 39.4 percent.