China’s top steelmaking city of Tangshan in Hebei province has issued a level II pollution alert effective from 17 Jan (12 pm) to midnight 20 Jan’19, the city’s environmental authorities said on Thursday (January 17).
The three-day air quality forecast on the website of China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) on January 17 predicted that weather patterns over the city will cause air quality to deteriorate. It was this which led the government to tell mills to reduce sintering operations for the next three days.
Steel mills are divided into four categories A, B, C, and D based on their emission levels. Now during this period of 17-20 January mills in Category A located in urban areas have to face cutbacks of 40% on their sintering machines, while those located outside the city are required to cut capacity by 30%. Apart from these sintering machines in steel plants assessed as Categories B and C will have to cut capacity by 50% and 60%, respectively. Sintering machines in Category D mills were ordered to close down completely.
Coking duration across coking plants will be extended. All mining and ore crushing companies in Tangshan were asked to suspend during the smog alert.
From 8 pm (as per China Standard Time) on 17 January to CST 8 am on 20 January, transport vehicles are banned from delivering cargoes at ports.
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