Top Chinese Steel Manufacturer Mulling Moving Blast Furnaces to Cambodia

• 23 May 2019
• Local News
• 2556 Views

Photo by Xinhua

China’s top steel manufacture, China Baowu Steel Group, is conducting a feasibility study to move its blast furnaces from Xinjiang to Cambodia in late 2019, according to Reuters.

Speaking to Reuters, an unnamed senior Baowu manager said that the company is studying the possibility of shipping two blast furnaces capable of producing 3.1 million tonnes of metal and two converters to turn iron into steel.

If the plan goes through, the equipment would be shipped from Xinjiang Bayi Nanjiang Steel Baicheng Co Ltd after the plant was shut in 2017.

“This equipment may be seen as outdated in China, but it is still quite advanced in Cambodia,” Reuters quoted the manager as saying.

The plan to move the steel-making equipment comes at a time when Cambodia’s construction industry is booming with most of the steel imported from neighbouring countries like Vietnam.

However, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie in Beijing told Reuters that it would be difficult to set up a factory in Cambodia citing the country’s lack of infrastructure such as railways and utilities, as well as a noncommittal investment environment.

The analyst also pointed out that moving blast furnaces from China to Cambodia would need a journey of over 6,000 kilometres with the equipment weighing thousands of tonnes and presenting significant logistical challenges for Baowu.

“Cambodia is a preferred option … But we also have a back-up plan of moving them (the furnaces) to Pakistan,” Reuters quoted the manager as saying.

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