Tangshan, China's top steelmaking city, took more drastic pollution control measures after mid-to-heavily polluting days were forecast over October 18-22, on top of a second-level smog alert starting 20:00 pm on October 15.
From 8:00 am October 18 till 8:00 am October 22, trucks will be banned from entering or departing ports in the city, and heavy-haul trucks will be prohibited for transport at steel and coke plants, according to a municipal government notice issued on October 17.
Steel firms owning just one blast furnace in Kaiping, Guye, Fengnan and Fengrun districts of Tangshan city are required to more than halve production during the same period.
Between 0:00 am October 20 and 24:00 pm October 21, all coke firms in the city should trim charged coal at coking chambers by over 50%, said the notice.
As per another notice issued by Tangshan government on October 15, steel mills evaluated with "A-level" emissions performance, the cleanest level, will set emission measures in an autonomous manner. Mills rated "B-level" and "C-level" will need to halt sintering and pellet production, and "C-level" plants will also have to curtail blast furnaces operations by more than 50%.
If the alert is still in place after five days of implementation, mills rated "B-level" and "C-level" should more than halve production at sintering and pelleting facilities.
Independent sintering operations, pellet and steel rolling firms were also ordered to halt work.
Other industrials plants in coke, casting, cement and glass were asked to reduce output during the alert.
The time when the alert would be lifted is still in the air, depending on weather changes.
The output limits brought benchmark Dalian iron ore futures into loss for a third session in morning trade on October 16, with most-traded iron ore contract for January 2020 expiry falling as much as 1.7% day on day to 627 yuan/t, its weakest since September 26.
Source:sxcoal
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