On May 4, the Department of Economic and Information Technology of the Chinese province of Shanxi announced its scheme for eliminating out-of-date capacities in the steel, nonferrous metal and cement industries in 2010, to take immediate effect. The total capacity to be eliminated in the year in question exceeds ten million mt.
As regards the iron and steel industry, in 2010 the province plans to eliminate 37 blast furnaces, amounting to a total of 4.06 million mt of disqualified ironmaking capacity, as well as one converter accounting for 200,000 mt of disqualified steelmaking capacity. On the non-ferrous industry side, the province plans to eliminate 520,000 mt of disqualified capacities. Meanwhile, 6.708 million mt of disqualified cement capacities will be eliminated in 2010 according to the scheme in question.