It seems China has made a major-scale order to stop production of ferroalloys in the wide area including Fengzhen City in Inner Mongolia from October 20 to mid-November. This is for the purpose to alleviate air pollution for the period during 7th to 12th of November when APEC is scheduled to hold a conference in Beijing, and what to be intended for operation stop among ferroalloy production facilities in Fengzhen City are electric furnaces with a capacity being less than 30,000 KVA.

 

Fengzhen City supplies the electricity with a rate cheaper than the surrounding regions and is a main producing area for silico manganese and high-carbon ferro-chrome, but because of this time's setup of a high criteria being less than 30,000 KVA, almost all of the ferroalloy production facilities in the city will be forced to suspend operation.

 

At the moment, market watchers say the order to stop production has been made also to ferroalloy producers in Xinghe County, Zhuozi County and Huade County, and there is a possibility the area will be extended. However, Qipanjing as a main production area for ferro-silicon is far from Beijing, and the order to stop production has yet to be made. Besides, no order has been made to Qinghai and Ningxia Huiyet, either.

 

Now, it has been being checked if the order to stop production has been made to the surrounding provinces and cities, and it has been also reported that the regulation on the operation against steel mills during 1st to 12th of November before APEC in Beijing has been supported in Hebei.