The May 12 earthquake once forced Panzhihua Steel Chengdu Steel to suspend operations that day due to the collapse of workshops and the quake-related damages on equipment. The company arranged a meeting on the following day discussing matters on resumption at iron making plant. On May 14, a 70t EAF and a 30t converter were on track of operations. 304 continuous rolling pipe plant and 508 cycle rolling pipe plant also kicked off trial production on the following day.
Its wire plant, rod plant, special pipe processing plant also joined the resumption move until a circular warning a possible aftershock measuring at 6-7 Richter scale at the epicenter of Wenchuan, Sichuan released on May 19-20. As a result, all the production lines in the company halted again.
However, Panzhihua Steel Chengdu Steel brought back into operations of No 2 sintering machine, No 1 blast furnace, all converters and EAFs and 340 and 508 pipelines from May 21, according to officials from the disaster relief headquarters who added they will always put safety production on top priority.