Creation of Tangshan Group on track
The Hebei municipal government recently gave the go-ahead for the creation of Tangshan Group.
The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Hebei Municipal Governments property rights to Xuanhua Steel and Chengde Steel will be handed over to Tanshan Steel. The combination of the three steelmakers will be the basis of the new Tangshan Group, which will have an annual capacity of ten million metric tons. The new company will be a state-owned company with limited liability invested by Hebei State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
In recent years, the output in Hebei Province has ranked first nationwide. However, the iron and steel enterprises in Hebei Province are highly dispersed. There are about 200 steelmakers in Hebei Province, many of which are small scale.
This past May, Hebei Province announced that six state-owned steelmakers would be restructured into two large groups. The Handan Group will be established in southern Hebei, consisting of Handan Steel, Xingtai Steel and Shi Jiazhuang Steel and other neighboring steelmakers. Tangshan Group will be established in northern Hebei, and include Tangshan Steel, Chengde Steel and Xuanhua Steel and other surrounding steelmakers.
Currently, the merger in southern Hebei is meeting with some difficulties. The main reason is that Shi Jiazhuang Steel was purchased by CiticPacific Corporation. In addition, Xingtai Steel will be listed on the
Hong Kong exchange. The chance of restructuring is slim, as these two factors complicate matters.
SteelOrbis Shanghai