Ouyeel Blockchain Finance and Metal Recycling Resources Company, a subsidiary of China Baowu Group, launched an Anhui scrap steel processing base on 4 January.

The scrap processing plant is able to process 2.8 million tonnes/year of scrap, Kallanish notes. These products will mainly supply steel producer Ma'anshan Iron & Steel, and Baowu will also supply to Nanjing Iron & Steel and Meishan Iron & Steel.

The investment in this smart base is CNY 440 million ($68m). Baowu says it is the first "lights off factory" in the scrap processing sector. All processes of the factory including purchasing, production, sales, settlement, business analysis and others will be online, and able to operate without personnel at its warehouses.

China Baowu also became the first company to import overseas scrap in 2021, although the transaction was mainly to test the waters, and to signal to the wider market that imports are now possible (see Kallanish passim).