On Sunday, May 17, Zhu Jimin, chairman of Beijing-based Chinese steelmaker Shougang Steel, stated that the company's Caofeidian project is in its final preparatory stage and is expected to start production by the end of June. Commencement of production at the Shougang Caofeidian project was originally planned for October 18, 2008 but was postponed due to the impact of the global economic crisis.
Shougang has a capacity of 4 million mt, mainly of long products. The Shougang Caofeidian project is designed to produce hot rolled and cold rolled products including steel products used for OCTG line pipe, ship building, automobiles and electrical appliances, which happen to be the products showing the greatest declines both in prices and export tonnages in the current steel market situation.
Mr. Zhu said that greater product variety is the general trend but needs serious consideration due to the various uncertain factors which lie ahead in the period after the launch of the Caofeidian project.