At the China Green Industry International Forum 2010 held in Beijing on June 26-27, Miao Yu, deputy minister of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stated that China will continue to push forward with the elimination of outdated capacities in industries characterized by high energy consumption, high carbon dioxide emissions and high pollution levels.
Mr. Miao remarked that in China's 11th five-year plan period (2006-2010) up to the end of 2009 the country eliminated 81.7 million mt of steelmaking capacities, 82.5 million mt of coke production capacities, 240 million mt of cement manufacturing capacities and 6 million mt of papermaking capacities. Meanwhile, the steel, coke, calcium carbide and ferroalloy industries have all achieved their targets for the 11th five-year plan period ahead of schedule. Nevertheless, there are still many dated capacities in existence in Chinese domestic industry. Specifically, total annual steel production capacities from existing blast furnaces below 400 cubic meters are as high as 125 million mt.
Mr Miao said, "We need to make rigorous assessments for the applications of new programs in high energy consumption and high emission industries."