Shandong Devises New Setting for Steel

As China's pilot province in the frontier of steel restructuring, the Shandong government has raised the idea of highlighting coastal areas, optimizing inland facilities and, particularly, trying best to foster Rizhao Steel Project.

To be more precisely, Shandong Iron and Steel Group, as a leader in the program, will shift its production structure toward coastal regions by pruning output in Laiwu Steel and Jinan Steel, as well as making Qingdao Steel a part of Rizhao Steel Project. In doing so, Jinan Steel will become a major production base of medium heavy plate, Laiwu Steel a maker of H section and quality special steel, and Zhandian Steel and its neighboring steel assets a construction steel group. By 2015, Shandong Group will have a capacity of 38 million tons per year, accounting for 76 percent of the province's total output. The concentration of production along the coastland will reach more than 43 percent.

Rizhao Steel Project, which is expected to be completed in 2015, will include Rizhao Steel whose output is now limited to five million tons. Experts say what is important for the 20 million t/y steel giant is to set up a cost-effective production platform capable of making a wide range of products, high-end or ordinary. Production flows with the technology of new generation should be employed to avoid highly energy consuming and pollution issues.