Government officials in one of the largest steelmaking regions in China have reportedly pledged to curtail nearly 32 million tonnes of steel and iron output in 2017.
According to an online report from Reuters, which cites China’s Xinhua news agency as its source, an official in the province north of Beijing also pledged to cut nearly 50 million tonnes of output by 2020.
Reuters and Xinhua report that Hebei provincial governor Zhang Qingwei has said that four “zombie firms” in Hebei would be shut down in 2017, although he did not specify which firms.
The steel industry in China may be under pressure to reduce capacity in 2017 for two reasons: protests from other countries who say they are being flooded with imported steel and criticism from Chinese citizens who see the steel industry as a major air polluter.
In a separate online article from Xinhua, China’s environment minister is quoted as saying he “felt guilty” about the extraordinarily high levels of air pollution being experienced in parts of China in the opening days of 2017.
That news report refers to Chen Jining, leader of China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), as acknowledging the public’s anxiety about air pollution and saying, “The root cause of the [Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei] region’s smog problems, from a long-term perspective, is the unclean industrial and energy mix, which require big changes.”
The MEP says measures that can be taken include phasing out “unclean and inefficient coal-fired boilers,” encouraging off-peak industrial production and enhancing “scrutiny and punishment for violations of the rules.”