China has urged local governments to finish shedding 16.91 million mt of unsafe and outdated steel production capacity by the end of February 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Thursday, as reported by Reuters.
More than 21 million mt of inefficient iron smelting capacity, 1.62 million mt of steel alloy capacity and 313,500 mt of electrolytic aluminium capacity have also been targeted in a long-standing campaign aimed at cleaning up and streamlining China's industries.
The ministry said outdated heavy industrial facilities throughout China were hindering its efforts to improve work safety, improve energy efficiency and combat pollution.
The major steel producing province of Hebei in northern China needs to meet a target to close as much as 9 million mt of iron smelting capacity and 4 million mt of steel output before the February deadline.
Jiangsu Province on the eastern coast will also be expected to complete the closure of 2.45 million mt of iron smelting and 5.47 million mt of steel smelting capacity.