THE country’s top steelmaking city has ordered many of its industrial factories to curb production or even close for as long as four months through to March in a bid to clear the skies of smog.

    Tangshan, a city in northern Hebei Province, will seek to reduce steel production by requiring producers to cut emissions by as much as 50 percent from Nov. 15 to Dec. 31, according to a document published in the official Tangshan government newspaper late Monday.

    Steel plants with sinter facilities — those that process smaller particles of iron ore into lumps — that do not have desulfurization equipment are required to partially shut during the period, the document said.

    The curbs may only have a limited impact on steel output from Tangshan since blast furnaces, or the big machines used to make steel, “are basically not impacted,” said Richard Lu, analyst at CRU consultancy.

    “That is actually not new to the steel industry there as the Tangshan government has implemented the same measures several times this year,” said Lu.

    Tangshan accounts for about half of the steel output in Hebei where nearly a quarter of China’s total steel is made.

    The city will also close all cement plants and coal-fired power plants that did not reach the minimum emission standards for four months from Nov. 15.

    Coke production furnaces will be required to extend their production period to 36 hours before the new year. After Jan. 1, the production period will be further extended to 48 hours if the emission standard is still not met.

    Tangshan will also limit the times vehicles can drive in the city between Nov. 23 and March 15.

    “The pollution-related mandates are now increasingly used by local governments in northern cities as a key way to fight smog,” said a coal analyst with a Shanghai-based securities firm.(SD-Agencies)