On May 10, the Development and Reform Commission of the southern Chinese province of Guangdong Province held a press conference together with senior officials of Shanghai-based Baosteel, Guangdong-based Guangdong Steel Group and of the latter's subsidiaries Guangzhou Steel and Shaogang (both of which are also based in Guangdong). At the press conference, the commission announced that Guangdong Steel Group has taken a substantial step towards restructuring with its plans to move Guangzhou Steel to Zhanjiang where a steel production base with an annual capacity of 5 million mt is to be built within three years. The total investment for this project will be around RMB 35 billion ($5 billion), with the new facilities mainly producing high-grade carbon flat steel for the Guangdong provincial market.
Meanwhile, Guangdong Steel Group plans to eliminate 3.5 million mt of out-of-date steel capacities at Guangdong Steel and 1.5 million mt of disqualified steel capacities at Shaogang. Thus, also taking into account the 10 million mt of disqualified steel capacities which Guangdong Province has already eliminated, the province will have eliminated of total of 15 million mt of disqualified steel capacities.