Linyi production base(Luozhuang district)

On 17th December, the leading group office of prevention and control of air pollution in the Luozhuang district of Linyi production base issued a notice of the implementation of the emission reduction measures in the construction of ceramic industry in the heating season. The notice shows that from 18th December to 31th December, all local ceramic companies should commit the measures.  

1: All the sub-district offices should take the responsibility to manage and urge the ceramic companies to halt production. The power supply bureau should cooperate with the sub- district offices and relevant departments to plan power cuts and power rationing for the ceramic companies.

2: All the ceramic companies should take the responsibility to carry out the emission reduction measures and halt production in time.

3: When the ceramic companies halt production, their noise index will be examined according to the requirements of arranging industrial companies to retreat from the city and go back to the industrial park. If the ceramic companies fail to halt production and affect the examination, they should bear the consequences of their choices.

It has been released that the local ceramic companies prepared to halt production after they received the notice. By 18th December, most of the local ceramic companies have halted production.

In addition to the Luozhuang district, some ceramic companies in the Hedong district also received the notice which required ceramic companies to limit production. It has been reported that the ceramic factories in the Hedong district should limit production to 50% in January 2018. In other words, the ceramic factory that has two production lines must close one production line. In February 2018, the ceramic factory that has three production lines should close two production lines.

At present, the ceramic companies in the Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone of Linyi has already halted production for half a month. They can recover 50% production capacity until the end of December.  

Zibo production base(Yangzhai Industrial Park)

On 18th December, the ceramic companies in Yangzhai Industrial Park of Zibo production base received the notice of gas cuts. The notice claims that the natural gas is out of supply as northern area has turned to use natural gas as clean fuels to reduce air pollution and industrial parks have changed fuels from coal to gas.

In recent two days, the temperatures have continued to drop and the imports of natural gas have been limited as well. Therefore, the China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) and the China National Petroleum Corporation, the country's largest oil producer, have reduced the gas supply by 110,000 m²/ day. 

On 19th December, the local gas company has already cut off gas supply to industrial companies so as to ensure that there would be enough gas supply to meet the demands of local residents.The gas cuts will remain open until further notice. By 20th December, the ceramic companies in the industrial parks started to stop their kilns. Currently, only 3 or 4 ceramic companies are still producing ceramic tiles. 

Actually, it it worth noted that the local ceramic companies faced the challenge of environmental inspection as well. On 20th December, Zibo issued an orange alert for heavy air pollution. So, from 21th December, the building ceramic, refractory and other industries were required to suspend production. If the industries fail to stop production immediately, the districts and counties are required to work out a plan to make sure that the companies concerned can stop production for over 60 days. It has been released that some ceramic companies have already planed to recover production in Febraury next year.  

Source of the cover: inengyuan.com