Category Archives: Chinese Steel Mills

How to Select a Steel Supplier from China

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How to find the best steel coil suppliers in China? This is your first time to source H Beam steel or IPE steel products from China? Do you want to find some useful tips or experiences? If your answers are Yes, then you are in the right place.

It’s important for you to find and buy only the best quality materials from hundreds and thousands of Chinese steel Supplier, with reasonable steel prices , whether you’re the owner of a trading company or  running a manufacturing business. Keep in mind that the end result is only a product of what you put into it.

Before searching a steel company in China, there are Two things you should always in mind: High quality steel products and good reputation for services. Below are the factors that would guide you answer your questions, and help you find a steel supplier with high quality products and good services:

Production facilities

In Steel Industry, the steel products’ quality of a mill provided mainly depends on their facilities. As you know, Steel is a high volume product,  it is improbable to check all the products’quality. That’s why it is important to find the right kind of Iron & Steel making route and right equipments to produce for you. Some of the common facilities including: Ladle Refining furnace, Continuous casting / Ingot Casting, Rolling, Finishing Facilities.

Quality Control

Quality control can be achieved With higher levels of automations and by complying with efficient quality systems. You can check whether the company have any certifications of factory management and quality control assurance, ISO9001, ISO14001 for example. A steel mill gets accredited to ISO or other various renowned quality standards and private quality standards, then a quality control system is in place. Please note that the quality control is related with all departments, not only the quality control department. This attitude will ensure reduction of defective steel products

Good Services

Your suppliers would like to provide you a steel solution? or just sell products? Steel plants should always make themselves as a steel solution provider, rather than steel producer and sellers. A sales with good services would offer you some suggestions, help you saving cost. As a buyer, you have to check how customer friendly of the sales is and how your orders are taken care of. There are lots of steel plants with good facilities and products, but with poor sales team and bad attitude.It will take some time to find a sales team with fully support, but it is worth to do that. Understand each other, trust each other, enjoy a long term win-win cooperation.

There are another better and easier way for you to judge the level of a steel supplier’s product quality and their services: Check the company’s reputation of their past dealing for references, check their existing clientele. but you should know every customer have different needs, you should know your market and your position.

China’s Steel Industry Executive Summary in March 2014

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China is the largest steel manufacturer in the world and it is still in fast growing, not only in Steel products’ output, but also in steel products’ range and quality. Chinese low-end steel products, billets and hot-rolled coils for example, are not favorable as before for foreign importers. Instead, Chinese steel industry is becoming a higher value-added supply base. You will find that China’s steel industry is becoming a whole new entity.

U.S. Imports of All Steel Mill Products from China

According to SIMA (Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis) ‘s report. The United States imports of steel mill products from Chinese steel suppliers greatly over the past few years.

1) From 2013.12 to 2014.1 U.S. imports Steel mill products from China increased 33.6%, 173.7 thousand metric tons in total.

2) The data of imports from China in 2014.1 are 13.5% above the volume in 2013.1 and 20.5% above the 2013 average.

3) 2014.1 imports from China represent 6% of all U.S. steel mill imports, above the 5.7% share in 2013.12 but below the 6.4% share in 2013.1.

Here is a graph from SIMA, US Department of Commerce for your reference

U.S. Imports of All Steel Mill Products from China

Figure - U.S. Imports of All Steel Mill Products from China

 

Chinese Import and Export of Steel Mill Products

Based on the latest data from the NAFTA countries, the imports from China’s Steel suppliers into NAFTA countries decreased 9.5% , 225.7 thousand metric tons in total.

Steel imports into NAFTA countries from the world (excluding intra-NAFTA trade) decreased by 1.8% to 2.3 million metric tons from November to December 2013. Imports from China represented 6% of all NAFTA countries’ steel imports in December 2013, well below the 6.7% and 6.6% shares in November 2013 and December 2012, respectively.

Chinese steel mill imports and exports increased between December 2013 and January 2014, with China’s steel trade surplus widening by 32.3% to 5.2 million metric tons.

According to the Graph below we can know that:

1) From December 2013 to January 2014, Chinese exports increased 26.7% to 6.5 million metric tons, a record high export volume that has not been reached since September 2008.

2) January 2014 steel mill exports were 38.6% above January 2013 exports and

122.6% above exports in January 2011.

3) Chinese imports in January 2014 increased 9.1% from December 2013 imports to 1.4 million metric tons. China’s steel imports in January 2014 were up 20.1% from imports a year ago, and down 20% compared to January 2011.

As a professional One stop Steel products supplier since 2002, we, Sunspeed Imp & Exp co.,ltd, will always be here waiting for providing you our best solutions. What we can offer you including: Galvanized Steel, Galvalume Steel, Prepainted Steel, Hot Rolled Steel, Cold Rolled Steel, Angle Iron, Galvanized Angle Iron, Flat Bar, Steel Channel. Please contact us to get what you want.

 

Australian Standard Galvanized Angle Iron Made in China

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Australian Standard Angle Iron Made in China

In March 2012 one of our Australian customers visited to??confirm proceedings for putting in an order of Australian standard galvanized angle iron amongst other things. In total they needed 300 tons of angle iron, 100 tons of flat bar and 200 tons of H beam.

During their visit we took them to check out the galvanizing plant we cooperate with in Beijing. This is because they wanted a good portion of their angles to be galvanized here in China with a zinc coating of?????605g/sqm. Their other key priority was that the galvanized angle iron was straight and flat.

The Olympic Bird's Nest

Our cooperating??plant is just a 30 minute drive from our office in Beijing and is run by a wonderful lady called Mrs Wang. Her plant is world class and she in fact galvanized various pieces for the Beijing Olympic Bird’s Nest Stadium.

Unlike the other galvanizing plants you will find further north in China, such as Tangshan in Hebei Province, the Beijing galvanizing plant can ensure the zinc coating meets AS/NZS 4680:2006 standards.

Yes there are many galvanizing plants in Hebei, but even if they say they can achieve a high coating??most of these can only manage a zinc coating of 250 to 300 microns (max). This of course is unacceptable for Australian standards or meeting deep sea specifications.

Armed with a coat thickness testing device we went around some of Mrs Wang’s freshly galvanized angle iron to take readings of the zinc coating.

Confirming Galvanized Zinc Coating Meets Australian Standards

These galvanized equal angles were 75 x 75 x 8mm. We tested one of the bundles at six different points along the length and got the??following??readings: 76.4??m; 80.2??m; 105??m; 115??m; 129??m; 130??m. This averaged out at 105.9??m - so the average zinc coating mass of this bundle was: 756g/m?? (comfortably meeting the requirements for AS/NZS 4680:2006).

Our customers were satisfied with the plant and a few months later they put in an order for both 6m and 9m length angles to be galvanized in Mrs Wang’s plant.

Our customers have also made repeat orders of Australian standard galvanized angle iron since being happy with the first batch.

The photos below are of our Australian customers’ nine meter unequal angles going through the galvanising process in Mrs Wang’s plant. The photos are accompanied by a small explanation of each stage. The plant has two production lines with one nine and one twelve meter zinc bath.

Rinsing and Pickling Angle Iron in Acid

Upon arriving at Mrs Wang’s galvanizing plant, the prime black angle iron is rinsed and pickled in 10% hydrochloric acid to remove scale, rust and other surface oxides. Then it is rinsed in a hot zinc ammonium chloride pre-flux solution to condition the steel surface to facilitate the reaction between the steel and molten zinc.

Angle Iron Plunged Into Molten Zinc Bath

After the pre-flux has dried on the steel???s surface the conditioned black angle iron is plunged into the molten zinc bath and remains immersed for over three and a half minutes (Temperature 455??C) to meet the crucial requirements of AS/NZS 4680:2006.

Workers Scooping the Dregs off the Surface of the Molten Zinc

Workers make their way down the length of the bath scooping the dregs off the surface of the molten zinc.

Angle Iron Removed from Molten Zinc Bath

The angles are removed from the bath and swiftly moved over to the cooling bath.

Angle Iron Plunged Into a Bath of Water to Cool Down Post Galvanization

The galvanized angles are plunged very briefly into a bath of water to cool down post??galvanization.

Angle Iron Quenched in Sodium Dichromate Solution for Chromate Passivation

A few seconds later, the angles are quenched in a weak sodium dichromate solution that continues the cooling process and applies a low level of chromate passivation to the galvanized coating???s surface.

Galvanized Angle Iron Coating Thickness Gauge Test

Here???s a reading we took off the surface immediately after quenching.

AS-NZS 4680 Standard Galvanized Angle Iron

The final product.

If you are interested in Australian standard??galvanized angle iron visit us in Beijing and we???ll give you a tour of Mrs Wang’s galvanizing plant.