Zhayi Steel in Qian'an City, Hebei Province has ceased production. At the same time, the steel plant has been taken over by Jiujiang Wire Rod, according to the company's staff.

The steelmaker's blast furnaces and steel production lines have now been stopped, affecting the production of 6,000 tonnes/day of hot rolled coil, Kallanish notes.

Official information shows Zhayi Steel owns three 90 square-metre sintering machines, two 580 cubic-metre blast furnaces, one 160-tonne converter, one 1,100mm slab caster and one 1,250mm hot-rolling line. The capacity of Zhayi Steel is 1.24 million tonnes/year of iron, 1.6m t/y of crude steel and 3m t/y of finished steel.

The Hebei government required Zhayi Steel to eliminate backward steel capacity, meaning the steelmaker has had to close down blast furnaces. JiuJiang Wire rod is expected to take over Zhayi Steel's assets and equipment, and would gain capacity quotas based on local government approval.