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China's number of domestic steelmakers will be cut to about 200 from 800 after industry restructuring in line with new regulations on steel mill operations, Chen Yanhai, director of the raw materials industry sector of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), said according to a release on the official website of the State Council. Chen was addressing a State Council press conference held on July 20. The regulations regarding steelmakers' operations are intended to better regulate steel production in terms of steel quality, environmental protection, energy efficiency, mining equipment, work safety and production scale, Chen said. MIIT has already started work on the implementation of the regulations, requiring domestic steel mills to fill out specific survey forms. According to the regulations issued by MIIT on July 13, all blast furnaces must have a maximum energy consumption rate of 446 kg of standard coal equivalent per metric ton of hot metal produced. All coking batteries must have a maximum energy consumption rate of 155 kg of standard coal equivalent per metric ton of coke produced. Blast furnaces built before July 2005 must have a minimum capacity of 400 cubic meters; converters and electric arc furnaces built before July 2005 must have a minimum capacity of 30 mt. For blast furnaces built after July 2005, the threshold will be 1,000 cubic meters, and for converters the threshold will be 120 mt, and electric arc furnaces, 70 mt. Qualified steel mills must also have had a crude steel output of over 1 million mt in 2009. For special steel producers, the threshold is lower, at 300,000 mt, of which over 60% must be alloy steel.
