China’s top steelmaking province of Hebei has announced that, due to anticipated increases in air pollution, it has decided to activate an orange alert for heavy air pollution from 18:00 on November 20, to implement strict emergency response measures (level two). The termination of the measures will be announced separately.
Two regions - the south central and eastern regions of Hebei Province - are required to implement level-two emergency response measures. The south central region of Hebei includes Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Hengshui, Xingtai, Handan Dingzhou, Xinji and Xiong’an New Area, while the second eastern region includes Tangshan, Langfang, Cangzhou and Qinhuangdao.
The Tangshan authorities had issued a level-two smog alert in mid-October, under which mills in B and C categories had to halt sintering production and cut blast furnaces capacities by more than 50 percent. The influence of restrictions will be wider this time, as the order covers a bigger area.