Beijing Shougang Company suspended all steel facilities at its Shijingshan Plant in western suburban Beijing at the end of 2010, according to a company announcement by the Shenzhen-listed company.

The production suspension, involving assets valued at RMB 4.5bn ($686.8M) is aimed at a restructuring via a swap for the ‘high-quality’ assets of Shougang Group, its major shareholder.

Facilities closed cover the steel producer’s capacity of iron making, coking, steel smelting, high-speed wire rod, steel for construction and colour-coating sheet, which contributed 4.42Mt pig iron, 4.63Mt steel and 2.95Mt steel semis to Shougang Co’s 2009 production.

With the suspension of its Shijingshan operations, its steel facilities still in operation are a wire rod plant with a 500kt/y hot rolling capacity and a cold rolling mill with a 1.5Mt/y sheet capacity.

Since 2005 Shougang Group has been involved in restructuring to phase out smelting operations in Beijing and relocate most of its facilities to Caofeidian, Hebei Province.

In addition to greenfield projects in Caofeidian, Shougang Group has been carrying out M&As of Chinese steel groups.

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