The Industry and Information Technology Department and Department of Ecology and Environment of Hebei Province in China hs issued the work plan for off-peak production in the steel industry in the heating season in Hebei province in 2021-2022, which will be effective from November 15, 2021, to March 15 2022, covering the cities of Shijiazhuang, Tangshan, Handan and Xingtai, Cangzhou and Xinji, and also unofficially including Chengde, Zhangjiakou and Qinghuangdao.
In the first phase, November 15, 2021, to December 31, 2021, Hebei will achieve the target of reducing crude steel output. The total production in 2021 should not be higher than in 2020.
In the second phase, January 1, 2022, to March 15, 2022, Hebei will cut crude steel output by 30 percent based on the output of the previous year, aiming to reduce the emission of air pollutants during the heating season.
The off-peak production will be focused on integrated steel enterprises, while it will require blast furnaces to halt production instead of reducing capacity utilization rates.
The steelmakers using scrap to make steel who have an A-level environmental performance rating and have completed an ultra-low emissions retro-fit can adopt emission reduction measures of their own accord, while they should ensure their outputs of crude steel do not increase year on year.
For the steelmakers who have been found to have violated central environmental protection regulations since 2021, whose capacity utilization rate is higher than 120 percent, or who were not included in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s steel industry standard announcement list, the proportion of off-peak production should rise by five percentage points.