SteelOrbis Shanghai
On May 18, Sinosteel Binhai Industry Co. Ltd and Baosteel Resources Co. Ltd held a signing ceremony in Beijing for the construction of China's first large-scale modern ferronickel project in Cangzhou Bohai New Development Zone.
The project worth an investment of RMB 1.8 billion ($258 million) targets an initial annual capacity of 80,000 mt, coming on stream in June 2009. The capacity of the project, which will be 51-49 percent controlled by Sinosteel Binhai Industry and Baosteel Resources respectively, may subsequently be expanded to 320,000 mt.
Sinosteel has stated that the new ferronickel plant will import raw material nickel ore from Southeast Asia, adopt advanced smelting technology from Ukraine and produce mainly 20 percent grade ferronickel, widely used in stainless production.
In recent years Chinese stainless mills have increasingly begun to favor ferronickel or nickel pig iron as an alternative to scrap or nickel.