Delong shuts down blast furnace for 3-month maintenance

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The purpose of the maintenance, which is scheduled to commence on Monday March 9, is to “enhance the safety and technical features of the blast furnace”, Delong said late last week.

The blast furnace is expected to resume operation at the beginning of June, with the maintenance slated to cost around 80 million yuan ($13 million).

“As a consequence of this maintenance exercise, the group’s production capacity is expected [to] be reduced by approximately 187,000 tonnes in 2015, representing 5.5% of the estimated capacity for 2015,” Delong said.

“In light of the above, the maintenance is expected to reduce the group’s revenue by approximately 400 million yuan [$65 million] in 2015”, based on the current market prices for the company’s products, Delong added.

The steelmaker is listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) but has operations in northern China’s Hebei province where it can produce over 3.5 million tpy of steel.

It sold 2.92 million tonnes of hot rolled coil and 437,331 tonnes of billet in 2014, and reported a net profit of 101 million yuan ($16.3 million) for the year.