Reuters in Beijing – Updated on Jul 14, 2008
One of China’s biggest steel makers, Shougang, has announced it will slash production at its Beijing plant, bowing to pressure to help clean the city’s grimy skies for the Olympic Games.
Shougang Iron and Steel Group will “limit production during the 2008 Olympic Games period, reducing as far as possible pollution emissions during the Games period,” it said in a statement over the weekend on the website for the Shenzhen stock exchange, where the Group is listed.
Confirming earlier statements, the Group said that in the third quarter output of iron, steel and steel products at its Beijing plant will shrink by 50 per cent compared with the same period last year.
It will produce 540,000 tonnes of iron, 560,000 tonnes of crude steel and 550,000 tonnes of steel products in the third quarter, it said.
It had run at higher rates earlier to ensure yearly production of 4 million tonnes from its Beijing mill.
Beijing’s chronic pollution has been one of the biggest headaches for Games organisers, who have vowed that restrictions on traffic and factories will bring blue skies and easy breathing for athletes during the Games, from August 8-24.
The Chinese capital is just weeks away from the Games. Rain and winds brought blue skies on Saturday, but humid, overcast weather over past weeks has often kept city residents wheezing in a shroud of haze, dust and fumes.
Shougang, whose name means “Capital Steel”, is the worst polluter in the city. It is moving production to a 10 million tonne, state-of-the-art mill on the nearby coast of Hebei province that is slated to be fully ready by 2010.
Shougang was originally due to end all operations at its mill in the west of the city before the Olympics, but now plans to fully close that plant by the end of 2010.
City officials told Shougang to restrict production to 200,000 tonnes per month over the Games period, a cut that will reduce its emissions by 70 per cent, a company executive said last year.
The Shougang announcement did not say when it will begin the production cuts, but the Beijing government issued rules in April ordering industrial firms such as Shougang Group to reduce or stop production from July 20.
As part of the Games anti-pollution drive, hundreds of factories in provinces surrounding Beijing will also face production cuts or freezes over coming weeks.
From July 1, vehicles that fail to meet emissions standards have been banned from entering downtown Beijing. And from July 20, Beijing will launch a traffic control system to take half of the city’s 3 million cars off the road, using an odd-even licence plate system.