[Ferro-alloys.com] Steel mills in North China’s Hebei province are bracing themselves for intensified curbing on local steel industry in the winter of 2021-2022. China's Hebei Province’s steelmaking hub Tangshan has issued the Implementation Plan for Air Quality Assurance for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympic Games, requiring the city to reduce crude steel output by 12.37 million tonnes ahead of these events in 2021. There will be two phrases for air quality assurance for the games. The first one will be until January 27, 2022, while the second one will be during January 28-February 20 and February 27-March 13. A large number of steel mills in Tangshan have already been implementing some crude steel output cuts -from 10-30%, but the pace of output curbs is expected to intensify towards the end of the year.

As China moves to reduce emissions in steel sector, China Iron & Steel Association had recently said that “There will be more notable reductions in crude steel output along with government led environmental checks, the, outlining the prospects for the steel market in the second half. Daily crude-steel output at major mills fell 5.6% in the first ten days of July from June, with most of the cuts taking place at plants in Shanxi, Hubei and Hebei provinces and mills including China Baowu Steel Group and HBIS Group. Steel exports may drop after the country imposed higher tariffs on overseas shipment. Domestic demand for steel will also slow in the second half after industries front loaded consumption.”

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics is an international winter multi-sport event that is scheduled to take place from 4 to 20 February 2022, in Beijing and towns in the neighbouring Hebei province in the People's Republic of China. The 26 venues for these sports are mainly spread around Beijing except that all other skiing events will be held in Zhangjiakou city in Hebei province, 220 km from downtown Beijing

Chinese government’s attempts to cap steel output at below last year’s record 1,065 million tonnes have had limited success so far. In the first half of 2021, Chinese steel mills have churned out 12% more crude steel at 564 million tonnes and to achieve impossible goal of capping crude steel output in 2021, Chinese steel mills will have to reduce crude steel production in July-December 2021 to about 500 million tonnes, ie reduction of almost 10 million tonnes a month. China says it’s committed to continuing production cuts in steel, and its mills in steelmaking city Tangshan have reportedly lowered output after being warned of punishments if they overproduce. But not everyone agrees that the government will have its way. In other words, it will be virtually impossible for China to produce less steel this year compared to last year but production is likely to be lower in the second half of the year, and crude steel output will be up around 8-9% this year.

• [Editor:zhaozihao]