Handan issues 'Blue Skies' plan, steelmakers tremble
Source: Mysteel
May 10, 2018 17:49
Handan city, a major steel production base of North China’s Hebei province, has come up with a special action plan to improve the local environment after China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment identified it recently as among the country’s most polluted cities. In fact, on the ministry’s list of 28 cities with toxic smog problems, Handan was second last on the list, a Mysteel market source shared on May 10. Only Jincheng in North China's Shanxi province had more severe atmospheric pollution issues.
Zeroing in on steel as a major contributor to the city’s airborne woes, the plan released on Tuesday aims to trim 300,000 tonnes/year of steelmaking capacity and 1.5 million t/y of ironmaking capacity by the end of August. At the same time, coke producers and coal miners are required to remove a total of 3 million t/y (or more) of coking capacity and 1.2 million t/y of coal capacity respectively during the same period.
The government noted that to realize its plan, the focus would be on environmental-unfriendly companies hosting “substandard capacity”, as well as those with outdated facilities in industries known to be heavy polluters.
“As of now, the requirement to cut the steel capacity didn’t impact our normal production to any great degree,” an official from a Handan-based steelmaker said, insisting that his company had made great efforts and invested heavily for environmental protection including upgrading eco-friendly production facilities.
However, steel and coke producers whose investments for environmental protection have been limited may suffer considerably under Handan’s new directive. “Handan has already imposed a new round of steel capacity curbs on blast furnace operators for the period from April 1 to November 15, and about 25% of (the city’s) BF capacity will be restricted during the period,” a Beijing-based Mysteel analyst commented.
According to the plan, Handan is determined to lower the average concentration of particulate matter in air over its cities by 12% this year and is equally determined that the seven counties under its jurisdiction – including Wu’an city – are no longer mocked as Hebei province’s ten smog-prone cities.
An additional motivation emerged on May 2 when the Hebei provincial government’s department of environmental protection released its assessment of the efforts cities in the province were making to fight against smog, with Handan singled out as the only city failing to reach the standard.
Written by Venus Wang, wangyi@mysteel.com
Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com
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