Industry and Information Technology Department of Hebei Province announced that Hebei Province-based Chinese steelmaker Handan Iron and Steel Co. (Hansteel), a subsidiary of Hebei Province-based Chinese company Hebei Iron and Steel Group (HBIS) plans to start the construction of a 3,200 cubic meters blast furnace, a 3,700 cubic meters blast furnace, a 250 mt converter and two 100 mt converters in March 2020, with 5.65 million mt of newly-built iron-smelting capacity and 4.70 million mt of steelmaking capacity.
Meanwhile, Hansteel plans to eliminate 7.7 million mt of iron-smelting capacity and 5.875 million mt of steelmaking capacity, while the elimination will be completed before the newly-built capacity is completed, which will be by the end of December of 2021. As a result, the new steelmaking capacities will be 20 percent lower compared to the current capacity.