China’s top steel maker China Baowu Group will launch a 20 million tonne high-class steel production project in a coastal city in eastern China, its listed unit said in a stock exchange filing on Friday.

The move comes as the government relocates steel mills to the coast from cities to help reduce the impact of lung-damaging air pollution.

The new project will be located in Yancheng city in the manufacturing heartland of Jiangsu province. Once launched, Baowu will shut one of its plants in Nanjing city, the provincial capital of Jiangsu.

The first stage of the Yancheng project, with annual capacity of 8-10 million tonnes, will start construction from 2019 and is expected to be completed within three years, said Baoshan Iron & Steel Co (Baosteel) in the statement.

It will include ports, coking plants, power utilities, sintering, iron and steelmaking as well as steel-rolling plants.

The company expects the first stage of the project to cost 50 billion yuan ($7.20 billion), which will be paid by its own cash and fund-raising, Baosteel said.

 

Source: reuters.com

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