(Yicai Global) Sept. 10 -- Baoshan Iron and Steel, better known as Baosteel, will build a production line for high-grade non-oriented silicon steel and supporting public facilities in Shanghai for CNY2.4 billion (USD337.3 million).

The new plant will optimize the Shanghai-based firm's product structure and meet the rising demand of clients in the new energy vehicle field and other emerging industries for this high-grade steel, The Paper reported yesterday. China's demand for steel for new energy vehicle drive motors neared 100,000 tons last year, and will exceed 100,000 tons this year, and top 400,000 tons in 2025, data shows.

Non-oriented silicon steel is a ferrosilicon soft magnetic alloy with extremely low carbon content It mostly finds use as a core material in motors, generators and transformers. Supply of higher grade steel, which performs better in these applications, has long relied on imports because a few overseas steel mills have a stranglehold on the core technology.

The Shanghai-based firm will dismantle an existing production line for medium and low-grade non-oriented silicon steel to build the new plant, the report noted, saying the ground-breaking for the new facility will occur late this year, with trial production to start toward the end of 2021 and finish and pass muster by June 2023.

The new production line will be rigged for 100 percent automation and intelligentization, Baosteel stated. 

The company can produce 2.8 million tons of non-oriented silicon steel annually, including 400,000 tons of high-grade steel. Nearly 90,000 tons of this steel was in use in the large power generation industry as of the first half.

Baosteel operates as a subsidiary of state-backed China Baowu Iron and Steel Group, with which it merged in 2016.

Editor: Ben Armour