Steel mills in Northeast China safe from Typhoon Bavi

Operations of steel mills in Northeast China, including production, sales and raw material transportation, has been running as per normal despite that Typhoon Bavi, the severest in 70 years, is approaching the region, Mysteel Global understands from the industry sources on the morning of August 27.

Bavi is forecast to land Donggang city in Northeast China's Liaoning province on Thursday morning at a speed of 33-35 m/sec, and it will move northeastwards, crossing all the three provinces in the region - Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang - though the strength will reduce along the way, according to a post of China Emergency Information.

Bavi will be first typhoon that swipe Liaoning in 15 years or the strongest one since 1949, according to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), and out of precaution, the administration issued three red alerts for typhoon, rainstorm and strong wind respectively on August 26 to Liaoning, which triggered a slew of preventive measures from the related local authorities.

Dalian in Liaoning province, ordered the all-out closure of business and schools in the city, a local market source confirmed.

For now, the operations in the bulk commodities market in the region including iron ore seem to have been freed from any disruption, though, according to the market sources.

"Currently, iron ore unloading operations at the port have not been affected at all, as the rainfall is not so heavy," an official from the Dalian port in Liaoning confirmed.

Major steelmakers in Liaoning including Anshan Iron & Steel Group (Ansteel) in Anshan city, Benxi Iron & Steel Group (Benxi Steel) in Benxi, and Yingkou Iron & Steel Co in Yingkou all reported normal operations, with no evident impact of Bavi felt, according to the company officials.

"It is just light rains, at an average level of around 25-50mm according to the weather forecast and it will stop tonight, so all our operations is smooth," an Ansteel official said.

"Typhoon seems to have detoured, and there is not even much wind," a second Ansteel said.

A Benxi Steel official reported the same, "just drizzles, and we are still working as usual, nothing halted," he said.

Spot steel trading in the region, however, has been quietened by the typhoon, and some traders closed the shops for today as their end-users such as construction sites have been shut for the day, according to an industrial source from Shenyang of Liaoning.

Liaoning is China's third largest steel producing province in terms of 2019 steel output, with its crude steel production reaching 73.6 million tonnes in 2019, or 7.4% of the country's total.

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

Photo: World Steel