China closed induction furnaces

By the end of June, China had completed the elimination of old induction furnaces at its smelters.

The problem affected more than one and a half thousand companies throughout China and furnaces with a total capacity of 119 million tons. This power has long been used only to a small extent.

The Chinese authorities have tried their best to shut down the ovens before, but without significant results. Some companies, despite the bans, continued to produce steel there. Currently, all ovens have been shut down and cut off from energy and water supplies, preventing restarting.

The off kilns were producing poor quality steel, and this was the main reason for their elimination. The Chinese explain that induction furnaces for the production of steel from scrap metal are not able to effectively control the composition and quality of the steel produced. The first 10 furnaces with a total capacity of 2 million tonnes were closed in February at Hongtai Steel.

The Chinese authorities announced the closure this year of about 50 million tons of production capacity in the metallurgical industry and 150 million tons of coal mining. It plans to eliminate a total of 45 million tons of steel and 250 million tons of coal last year.

According to the Chinese authorities, the actual reductions amounted to more than 65 million tons of steel and 290 million tons of coal. Many observers, however, believe that a significant part of the steel industry is eliminating furnaces that were previously temporarily shut down and not in production, so that they had little effect on the actual overproduction of steel in the country.