SW Chinas Guangxi makes room for new steel mill

A southwestern Chinese region pledged to dismantle 10 million tonnes of outdated iron and steel plant, in speedy compliance with a central government order that should allow it to build a new mill, just as big.
China's state council announced on Wednesday that it would not allow new steel units, even as industry figures revealed a massive overcapacity thanks to aggressive expansion during boom times
The pledge by Guangxi's reform and development commission, reported by the Xinhua news agency on Friday, seems designed to keep plans to build a new, 10-million-tonnes, state-of-the-art steel mill on track.
The new mill, proposed by Wuhan Iron and Steel and local mill Liuzhou Iron and Steel (Liugang), will be built at the port of Fangchenggang.
The Fangchenggang project, and a rival plant of the same size proposed by Baosteel Group in neighboring Guangdong Province, have been delayed for years as the central government seeks to remove some of the country's excess capacity. They received approval in principle in early 2008.
Chinese mills have been quick to heed Beijing's calls to invest in better facilities and move up the value chain, but have been far slower to shut old furnaces as an economic boom kept construction steel demand strong.
In late 2005, Wuhan Iron and Steel Group, the parent of Wuhan Steel (600005.SS), announced that it would buy into Liugang, parent of listed Liuzhou (601003.SS) and that the two would jointly build the 10 million-tonne mill as part of Beijing's drive to build large steel mills along the coast.
An official at the commission told Xinhua that Guangxi would also tear down other polluting plants, including 64,000 tonnes of paper mill and 10,000 tonnes of ethyl alcohol capacity