Power cuts across China hit steel production in September 2021 as provinces enforced the central government's dual control targets on energy consumption and intensity. In Jiangsu, the country's second-largest steelmaking province, a symposium of the provincial steel associations on 26 September estimated the curbs would cut steel supply by about 3 million tonnes in the short term, with 70 percent of the province's industrial area affected. POSCO's stainless steel mill in Jiangsu suspended production, and mills in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Hebei and other provinces cut output or shut lines. Morgan Stanley estimated that about 67 percent of China's steel capacity across 11 provinces had announced output controls for the second half of 2021. The power shortages were driven by low coal supply and strong demand, and they hit just as steelmakers were already cutting output to meet emissions targets. Ferrosilicon and silicomanganese prices jumped 87 percent and 53 percent in the quarter as power cuts squeezed ferroalloy output.
Source: SteelMint — https://www.steelmint.in/china-power-curbs-to-cut-jiangsu-steel-output-by-3-mn-t-in-short-term-246844
Photo: Wikimedia Commons (freely licensed).