Shanghai-listed Baosteel has begun construction of a 2,250mm-wide hot strip mill at its Zhanjiang steelworks project in the southern province of Guangdong. The local Guangdong government recently brought forward the commissioning schedule of the plant, with one 5,050 cubic meter blast furnace commissioned in September 2015 and a second by June 2016, Kallanish notes.

The hot strip mill, supplied by SMS Siemag, will feed cold a 2,030mm cold rolling line which will target the automotive and manufacturing markets in southern China, which has so far had to bring in most of its steel from further north in the country.

The 8.9 million tonne/year steelworks is one of the largest ongoing capacity expansion projects in the industry and will go head-to-head with the similarly-sized Fangchenggang project by Wuhan Iron and Steel in neighbouring Guangxi province.

Baosteel is also in the process of relocating a 4,200mm plate mill from its Luojing works in Shanghai to Zhanjiang thus increasing its capacity to 1.6 million t/y.