Posted on 09 Jul 2021
China Baowu Steel Group Co (Baowu), the world’s top steel producer, will ignite its third blast furnace also with a size of 5,050 cu m just as planned in the second half of 2021 at its Zhanjiang steelworks in South China’s Guangdong province, an official of the steelworks confirmed on July 6, rebutting a market rumour about the “indefinite” delay of the commissioning.
“Everything (for the blast furnace’s commission) is ready, we just need to wait for the final check of authority on the BF’s parameters, such as its capacity and volume,” he said, adding, “there shouldn’t a problem for the ignition in H2.”
The official’s comment also matched an announcement from the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Guangdong province on July 5 that the No.3 blast furnace, together with an affiliated 350 t converter will be commissioned in August.
The giant blast furnace is designed with an ironmaking capacity at around 4 million tonnes/year and the converter at 3.6 million t/y in steelmaking, which will be sending feeds to a 4.5 million t/y 1,780mm hot rolling mill for high-strength steel and auto sheet production, as reported.
The latest speculation on Baowu has to do with the market mulling over how Beijing is to achieve a lower on-year steel output for 2021, and besides the Zhanjiang facility, a new blast furnace at Baowu’s stainless works in Southeast China’s Fujian province has been speculated on a possible delay in commissioning, and a large blast furnace at its Wuhan steelworks in Central China has been rumoured of a long overhaul, Mysteel Global noted. The later was confirmed by Mysteel, while the former was still pending.
The commissioning of a giant 5,050 cu m blast furnace and the converter at the Zhanjiang works will further compromise the chances for a lower steel output this year, which is already appearing rather impossible to many now that China’s steel output grew 13.9% on year to 473 million tonnes over January-May, according to a steel market insider from East China’s Shandong province.
When all the new facilities commissioned, the Zhanjiang steelworks will boast 12.3 million t/y of ironmaking, 12.5 million t/y of steelmaking and 10.8 million t/y finished steel rolling capacities ultimately, as reported.
Source:Mysteel Global
