According to a statement from the Xingtai environmental bureau, China’s city of Xingtai in Hebei province, the biggest steelmaking province in the nation, said it will carry out a serious of industrial production curbs from August 15 in order to reduce harmful emissions in the city. Xingtai Iron & Steel Corp, a foreign-capital controlled mill with 3 million tonnes annual capacity, was ordered to keep only one blast furnace with 1 million tonnes of capacity operating and one sintering furnace running during the production restriction period. Xingtai Delong Iron & Steel, with ironmaking and steelmaking capacity of 3 million tonnes each, will need to cut 30 percent of its blast furnace capacity
Two coke plants in the city have also been ordered to shut some of their equipment, while coal-fired power plants need to cut output capacity by 20 percent to 50 percent
Xintai did not give a date for the production curbs to be lifted, and added the measures will be in addition to anti-pollution approaches during winter season
Source : REUTERS
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