Benxi Iron and Steel (Group) Company Ltd (Bengang) plans to invest more than 10.0 billion Yuan to construct a new stainless steel sheet and strip project, and then enters stainless steel market.
The capacity;
former planned capacity of 800,000 tons per year;
and former planned hot rolling capacity of 3.00 to 3.50 million tons per year, including 700,000 tons of hot rolling (2.5 to 5.0 mm*1000 to 1650 mm);
Stainless steel output of 700,000 to 800,000 tons per year (0.5 to 3.0 mm * 900 to 1650 mm).
The main products include 200 and 300 series austenitic stainless steel, and 400 series ferritic stainless steel.

China’s demand on shipbuilding steel is expected to surpass 12 million tons in 2008, up 27.5% year-on-year, top 16 million tons in 2009, up 33.3% and over 18 million tons in 2010, according to a forecast by the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (CANSI).
Chinese shipbuilding industry consumed a total of 9.41 million tons of shipbuilding steel for ship repair and building, block assembly and ocean engineering in 2007, 75% of which were used in the shipbuilding sector. Of the total consumption, flats were 5.91 million tons, sections were 680,000 tons and others were 520,000 tons compared to 4.64 million tons of flats, 560,000 tons of sections and 460,000 tons of others in 2006.
Three provinces and municipalities with shipbuilding steel consumption above one million tons last year were Shanghai (1.82 million tons), Jiangsu (1.75 million tons) and Liaoning (1.33 million tons). Zhejiang was also close to the one-million-ton mark with a consumption of 940,000 tons.
China will have a shipbuilding completion of up to 25 million dwt in 2008 and 40 million dwt in 2009. China’s consumption of steel in the shipbuilding sector is expected to be 9.3 million tons in 2008, 13.56 million tons in 2009 and 15.4 million tons in 2010.

The rumor that all the iron and steel company around Beijing will be closed during the Olympic Games is not true, Wang Dayong, general secretary of Association of Metallurgy Industry in Hebei Province, said that during an interview. “As far as I know, the middle and small sized companies who has high pollution and energy consumption will be closed. But these 30 plus major companies with a capacity of more than 1.00 million tons per year will not be highly affected, as these company meet the national standards for pollution control,” he said.

European steelmakers called Friday for EU regulators to block BHP Billiton Ltd’s takeover of mining rival Rio Tinto PLC, saying the deal would allow a new iron giant to fix prices for steel’s key raw material.

Eurofer, the European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries, said it ”cannot believe that the (European) Commission will authorize the merger of two of three mining companies which dominate almost 75 percent of the world market for seaborne iron ore.”

The group’s director general, Gordon Moffat, said the deal would give the new company the power to fix prices for iron ore and coking coal on top of surging increases in recent years.

”This is not in the interest of the European steel industry which has already had to pass on huge increases in raw material costs,” he said in a statement.

The steel industry has seen costs soar in recent months. Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, the world’s largest iron ore miner, struck a deal with six Asian steel makers in February to raise iron ore prices by 65 percent. The coking coal that heats furnaces has gone up 200 percent.

ArcelorMittal SA, the world’s largest steelmaker and Eurofer member, has blamed these huge price hikes for its own price increases which force customers pay more for the steel that constructs buildings and is formed into cars and machinery.

A BHP Billiton takeover of Rio Tinto would combine the No. 2 and No. 3 iron miners and allow them to overtake Vale with a market share of almost 40 percent of seaborne iron ore.