Extreme pollution forces China to shut down hundreds of coal, steel operations
This article by Cecilia Jamasmie for Mining.com may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
The country’s state planner said that after inspecting more than 4,600 coal mines it decided to revoke safety certificates for 28 of them and shut another 286 operations for not complying with environmental and safety regulations.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) also ordered two steel firms to close permanently, 29 companies to suspend output and another 23 to reduce production, it said in the statement.
China will also set up a no-coal zone in cities around Beijing in 2017 to try reducing the capital's hazardous smog levels. As an additional measure, the government will ban factories and households in 18 districts and towns of the Hebei province from both burning coal and building new power generators powered by petroleum coke, Xinhua News Agency reported.
A study by Chinese and American researchers published last month blamed burning coal as the cause of premature death for about 366,000 people in 2013.
The fact that China is taking action to at least partially rationalise its coal and steel sector is good news for the global steel sector overall which has been struggling to compete with China’s massive oversupply of cheap product.
The Market Vectors Steel ETF invests in both steel companies and iron-ore miners. It has been trending higher since early this year and bounced from the regin of the trend mean two weeks ago.
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