On November 19, at the production site of electric furnace in Zimasco's west smelting plant of Sinosteel, a furnace of chrome molten iron was slowly poured into high-carbon ferrochrome ingots as the shiny iron gushed out from the iron outlet, marking the successful resumption of production of No.3 electric furnace of in Zimasco's west smelting plant of Sinosteel finally, which can increase the annual output of high-carbon ferrochrome by about 35,000 tons.
Due to such factors as the previous entry of the enterprise into judicial relief, the downward market trend and tight cash flow, Zimasco leased out the three electric furnaces of Zimasco's west plant at the end of 2015 under a complete shutdown of production. When facing difficulties such as the lessee's default on electricity bills to the power company, overuse of electric furnaces and tight supply of ore for resumption of production, the forefront team of Zimasco has solved one problem after another under the unified guidance and active deployment of Sinosteel Overseas: engaged in many rounds of painstaking communication and negotiations with the head of government, power companies, mining sector and other agencies, the Company has actively won over power supply policies and resolved power supply issues; Sinosteel Overseas assigned a technical team to communicate with the smelting plant's technicians, made suggestions for the repair of electric furnace and assisted in dealing with potential hidden problems; the mining sector has renewed agreements with mining contractors to increase production, added new open pit sites and increased exploration investment, which has exceeded the sum total of previous years this year.
Sinosteel Overseas and Zimasco have taken multiple measures and made joint efforts in the front and the back, systematically planning and promoting the sustainable development of Zimasco, highlighting the integration of mining and smelting, highlighting the unity of stable operation in the current period and long-term development of project construction, highlighting the unity of production cost control and marketing, and fully operating the market-oriented way of attracting capital to achieve development and upgrading, which has achieved positive results. The successful resumption of No.3 furnace is an important sign and a good start, which can contribute to the new strength of Sinosteel to strengthen the development of its chrome business.