On September 4, 18 steel mills in the district of Wuan in the northern Chinese province of Hebei received notice that they would have to halt production operations from September 5 for periods ranging from 20 days to one month. In addition, local coking enterprises and iron ore mining companies have been asked to limit power consumption or to shut down in order to meet targets for energy savings and emission reductions in China's 11th five-year plan period.
Puyang Iron and Steel Co., the largest private sector steel enterprise in the region, is one of the mills that has stopped production. The Wuan district is the area with the second highest steel industry concentration in China. By the end of 2009 Wuan's total annual steel output capacity had almost reached 20 million mt.
Hebei Steel Group and Xinxing Pipes Group are among the steel producers in the region which have not been affected by the shutdown measures .
Meanwhile, several steel mills in the province of Shanxi and in some eastern Chinese provinces such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang have likewise been hit by electricity supply cuts, with some producers being shut down completely.