The Industry and Information Technology Department of China’s Shandong Province has announced that Shandong-based Rizhao Iron and Steel is planning to begin construction of one 3,000 cubic meter blast furnace and two 120 mt converters in 2020, which are expected to be put into operation in 2022. The new facilities will add 2.5 million mt of iron-smelting capacity and 2.7 million mt of steelmaking capacity.
At the same time, Shandong-based Qilin Fushan Iron and Steel will close 730,000 mt of iron-smelting capacity and 600,000 mt of steelmaking capacity, with the demolition of one 630 cubic meter blast furnace and one 40 mt converter to be completed before the operation of newly-built blast furnace and converters mentioned above. Meanwhile, Shandong-based Longsheng Iron and Steel will close 1.5125 million mt of iron-smelting capacity and 1.8 million mt of steelmaking capacity. These eliminated capacities will be used by Rizhao Steel in its latest capacity replacement project, while it also has 689,000 mt of iron-smelting capacity and 659,000 mt of steelmaking capacity available to it from the previous capacity replacement project announced by Rizhao Steel on November 13.
As a result, together with the previous announcement, Rizhao Steel will launch a total of 7.5 million mt of new iron-smelting capacity and 8.7 million mt of new steelmaking capacity in 2022.