Tangshan to activate level II anti-smog measures

SHANGHAI, Dec 23 (SMM) – Tangshan, China’s top steelmaking hub will begin to implement level II smog control measures from noon today December 23.

This comes after the city lifted its last round of anti-smog measures of the same scale last Tuesday December 17, which lasted for four days and limitedly impacted steel production across the region as existing sinter inventories and limited curbs on blast furnaces allowed mills to maintain production.

On top of required production cuts under an orange alert for heavy air pollution, steel mills that help provide heat are required to cut capacity of their sintering and pelletising machines and lime kilns by another 20%, while those who do not help provide heat should suspend those facilities.

A production cut of at least 50% is imposed on blast furnaces at mills that do not help provide heat and are graded as C-level in terms of environmental status.

Sintering and pelletising machines will be allowed to recover no more than half of their capacity after the level II smog control measures remain in place for more than 120 hours.