Hebei Huaxi Special Steel will advance the commissioning date of its relocation project by one month to 28 April 2021, according to Liang Zhibao, the person in charge of the project, Kallanish notes.

Huaxi started construction at the new site in June 2019, and work was halted on 3 February due to the coronavirus outbreak. After its resumption in late March, the company sped up construction progress, with a 24-hour work system adopted even through winter.

The whole project includes a 2,300-cubic-metre blast furnace, a 170-tonne converter, a 320-square-metre sintering machine, a small billet caster, a bar rolling line and a wire rod rolling line (see Kallanish passim). With an investment of CNY 6.04 billion ($917.87 million), Huaxi expects to see an annual sales revenue and tax payment of CNY 8 billion and CNY 1 billion, respectively.