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Pekin (Reuters) – China will continue to impose production restrictions in heavy industry in winter this year and tighten its badessment of steelmakers' emissions by waiving restrictions already in place, a ministry official said Saturday. of the Environment.
In the face of growing discontent with large-scale industrial shutdowns, Beijing is committed to more effective and targeted measures in the fight against air pollution by imposing different levels of production reduction on businesses in China. according to their emissions.
"The steel industry remains a major contributor to pollutants despite improved emission levels and production restrictions … This year, few blue-chip companies will be exempt from restrictions," said Liu Bingjiang, head of the department. atmospheric environment Ministry of Ecology and the Environment (MEE), said at an industrial conference.
Liu said MEE invite industry badociations to evaluate plant emissions to avoid fraud in the process of valuing emissions.
"We will impose severe penalties on factories that play tricks and will enforce the strictest production restrictions," Liu said, adding that he had noticed that the costs of investing and operating Emissions reductions in factories ranged from less than 20 yuan ($ 2.91) per tonne to 270 yuan per tonne in steel mills.
China, the world's largest steel producer, has commissioned factories located in key areas, including Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Fenwei Plain and the Yangtze River Delta, to achieve high standards. very low emissions by 2020.
This would include more than 60% of the steel capacity in the country.
Companies that meet "ultra low" emission standards have the right to be exempted or are allowed to apply a minimal level of production reduction during smoggy days.
However, a leader of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) at the same conference warned of insufficient "clean capacity" in the steel industry despite a record performance.
"I hope that the government will be able to adopt equitable measures as part of its smog campaign by protecting and supporting clean and advanced steel producers," he said. CISA President He Wenbo.
In the first five months of this year, China's production of crude steel rose 10.2 percent from the previous year to 404.88 million tons. 54% of the extra production comes from small steel companies whose emissions are generally lower than their medium and large rivals, he said.
"The factories are investing huge sums of money to improve their emission levels … they are the true heroes of the fight against pollution."
(Report by Muyu Xu and Norihiko Shirouzu, edited by Jacqueline Wong)
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