Chinese cities curb production to improve air quality in week before National Day
- Tougher anti-smog cuts than usual are taking effect this week, days before October 1 celebrations
- Targeted areas include steelmaking districts near Beijing
The output curbs coincide with the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing. Industrial firms in Hebei, which surrounds the capital, are under pressure to try to prevent emissions drifting across the city as ceremonies get under way.
Authorities have so far decided against a special campaign to force factories to close before National Day, relying instead on routine air quality procedures.
Three local government notices reviewed by Reuters do not mention National Day specifically, saying only that Hebei faced a sustained period of “unfavourable” weather that could make it harder to disperse smog, triggering more stringent industry curbs that started from Sunday.
According to a document dated Saturday and authenticated by two industry sources, the city of Tangshan, which produces nearly 100 million tonnes of steel a year, ordered some steel mills to cut sintering output by no less than 50 per cent from Sunday until the end of Friday and impose stricter emissions curbs over that period.
Sintering is a process of condensing iron ore ahead of smelting into steel.
The city’s producers of coke, used as fuel for the smelting process, will have to extend the amount of time they take to produce the fuel and also halt all wet coke quenching, which has higher rates of carbon dioxide emissions and energy losses, the document showed.
Coal-fired power plants in the city will also make further emissions cuts, while cement manufacturers will cut output by half, the document showed.
Tangshan had already imposed routine production curbs this month in response to pollution build-ups.
A separate document, from the district of Fengrun in Tangshan and also dated Saturday, ordered mills to cut production until Friday.
The Tangshan government did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Separately, the city of Handan in Hebei ordered steel mills, cement plants and coke producers in the district of Yongnian to impose deeper production cuts until October 10, amid forecasts of “unfavourable weather”, according to a document dated Sunday.
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In the eastern Shandong province, which also falls under the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei pollution control zone, 13 cities including the provincial capital of Jinan have issued orange pollution alerts from Wednesday to Sunday this week, triggering industry restrictions, the official Qilu Evening News reported on Monday. That is the second-highest warning level behind red in China’s four-tier system.
