China: Tangshan mills face month-long sintering curbs again

Most blast-furnace (BF) steelmakers in Tangshan, China's top steelmaking hub in North China's Hebei, have received requests to curb their sintering operations by 20-30% during September 4-30, as part of local authorities' further attempt to improve the city's poor ranking of air quality nationwide, according to Mysteel.

As of late Monday, the new environmental curbs have not yet involved BF operations at local steelmakers, Mysteel Global noted. Also, the stocks of sintered ore at these steel mills so far were enough to keep their BFs running at the current level, a Tangshan-based industrial source suggested.

Furthermore, "the use of diesel-fueled machinery was prohibited between 18:00-8:00 local time at Caofeidian Port in the city, and the discharge volume of imported iron ore at the port may see a reduction then," the source told Mysteel Global.

This round of curbs in Tangshan was imposed just a few days after the previous sintering restriction that had ended on August 31 and the earlier one that was effective during the whole month of July, as reported.

Written by Lea Li, liye@mysteel.com
Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com

Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.