SHANGHAI, March 13 (Reuters) - China's top steelmaking cityof Tangshan will order some steelmills to cut production by asmuch as half to improve air quality, after curbs put in placeduring winter expire in March, the government said on Tuesday.Some steel mills that have been slow in tacklingenvironmental pollution will have to cut production by up tohalf based on air quality, the Tangshan Development and ReformCommission said in a statement.
Tangshan is the world's biggest steelmaking city, producingmore than the whole of the United States in a single year.
It has proposed a fresh set of restrictions on steel mills,cutting production by 10-15 percent. As part of China's war against air pollution, Tangshan willset up different rates of production curbs in the central partof the city based on air quality, location and capacity size,the reform commission said.
China ordered 28 northern cities to cut steel output by upto half during the winter heating season from Nov. 15 to March15 as part of an anti-pollution campaign.
Mills in the main part of the city, including the TangsteelCompany, a unit of the Hebei Iron and Steel (HBIS) Group, aswell as the privately-owned Tangshan Guofeng Iron & Steel CoLtd, will be ordered to cut production by as much as 15 percent.Other Tangshan mills will cut production by 10 percent, butthat could be increased if air quality worsens. Mills that havenot obtained licenses to discharge pollutants will have to haltproduction.Under the new plan, the government will tighten monitoringand scrutiny on adherence to the curbs and order power suppliersto report electricity used by steel mills each month.
Hebei produced 191 million tonnes of crude steel last year,nearly 20 percent of China's total. Tangshan accounted for overhalf of that.(Reporting by Ruby Lian and Josephine Mason; Editing by TomHogue)
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