Hong Kong 16/06/2016 - Crude stainless steel producer at China’s largest stainless steel producer, Tsingshan Holding Group, is expected to rise 3.8 percent to around 5.5 million tonnes this year, said Kevin He, vice president of Tsingshan Holding Group.
Tsingshan had produced around 5.3 million tonnes of crude stainless steel last year.
About two-thirds of its product mix is made up of the high-nickel 300-series grade and the remainder is accounted for by low-nickel 200-series grade, He told FastMarkets on the sidelines of Metal Bulletin’s stainless steel conference in Hong Kong.
The company also expects to maintain the same ratio in its 300- and 200-series production even as it prepares to enter the non-nickel containing 400-series stainless steel market, He said.
Tsingshan is building a 1-million-tonne-per-year 400-series stainless steel mill in China's southern Guangdong province which should start production by end of this year. The mill will be further expanded in the future, He added.
The privately-owned Tsingshan is largely seen as an efficient low-cost stainless steel producer due to its ability to integrate upstream. It had overtaken state-owned Shanxi Taigang Stainless Steel in its production in recent years.
Tsingshan produces nickel pig iron in China but has since started production of the raw material in Indonesia - the project is widely credited for being the earliest and most successful in the country so far.