Shanxi province aims to cut the number of steel mills in the Province to less than 10 by 2015 in an effort to eliminate obsolete capacity and save energy, according to the Shanxi Iron and Steel Industry Association (SISIA).
I&S industry is one of the province's pillar industries. The number of steel mills with annual steel capacity higher than 1Mt/y now stands at 21.
In 2012, crude steel output in Shanxi amounted to 38.88Mt, accounting for 5.43% of the country's total output, ranking the province fifth nationwide. The value of steel sales amounted to RMB 333.55bn ($53.6bn) with profits at about RMB 4.09bn ($657.8M) last year.
SISIA also pointed out problems facing the province's iron and steel industry, such as slowdown in the industry consolidation, lagging development in iron ore mining industry, weak innovation ability, and high production costs and shrinking profits as well.
Shanxi plans to accelerate the pace of consolidation in the steel industry, develop recycling and support the development of stainless steel in the coming years. By 2015, sales revenue in the province's steel industry was expected to reach RMB540bn ($86.8bn). Crude steel output would likely stand at 50Mt, of which stainless steel output would be 4.5Mt, according to SISIA.
Source: China Metals e-mail [email protected]