China: Tangshan mills' sintering operations face emergency curbs

Steel mills in Tangshan in North China's Hebei province are being required to limit more sintering operations in coming days, as a part of city government efforts to control air pollution. The reductions will take effect from 18:00 on October 23 and are in response to a warning from the local meteorological administration that wind and climatic conditions will cause atmospheric pollution to accumulate over urban centres, Mysteel Global learned Friday.

According to the new government notice seen by Mysteel, many steel mills located in certain districts, counties and county-level cities under Tangshan's jurisdiction are required to observe more extensive curbs on their operations from 18:00 on Friday. The reductions will be based on their current regular curbing levels for air quality improvement schemes during winter, though the notice did not clarify when the constraints would be lifted.

The cutbacks will apply to mills in the Guye, Fengnan, Fengrun, Luanzhou, Qian'an, Luannan, Zunhua, Qianxi, Laoting and Caofeidian areas, Mysteel Global understands.

An official with a Tangshan-based steel mill noted that one of his firm's sintering machines included on the Tangshan government's list is actually already suspended for winter. For the other facilities, "we will start to observe the restrictions as required," he said.

An official with another local steel mill also told Mysteel it will limit sintering operations from the evening on Friday following the latest government notice. "But our blast furnace operations will not be affected if the curbs on sintering operations are for just a short period," he added.

The latest government notice did not include any restrictions on local steel mills' blast furnace operations, Mysteel Global learnt.

Elsewhere, for other parts of the control plan, the operations of local independent pelletizing plants will be temporarily halted, while the use of trucks for deliveries will also face some limitations during the curbing period.

Consequently, by late afternoon on Friday, trading activity for iron ore in the Tangshan area was sluggish, Mysteel Global noted from market sources.

This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.