China`s Changzhou City in Jiangsu Province Issues Fresh Production Cuts Orders

Jiangsu is China’s second-largest steelmaking province and Changzhou city is home to steel mills and steel processing firms, mainly pipeline makers. The city has produced 12.96 MnT of crude steel in 2017, accounting for 1.6% of China’s total steel output.

More than 400 companies in Changzhou will have to enforce the compulsory production cuts. However, as China has recently decided to have production cuts varying mill to mill basis, rates of production cuts in Changzhou city will be based on operations and emission levels at the companies and will be adjusted dynamically.

The business in Changzhou which also serves as the hub of China’s solar panel industry has come to grinding halt after the U.S. announced 30% tariffs on cheap solar panel imports from China in January this year. Along with this another blow to city’s panel manufacturers came from home after Beijing announced cut in panel manufacturers’ subsidies by lowering the feed-in-tariff rate for renewable energy by 10% in the end of May’18.

China has been following stringent production cuts, especially in steel and coal sector as a part of its anti-pollution campaign. In the start of July month, China’s top steelmaking city Tangshan in Hebei province had ordered steel mills, coke producers and utilities to deepen output curbs for six weeks this summer (till 21 Jul’18) in order to clear smog in one of the country’s most polluted areas. Also, many of the steel firms in Xuzhou city of Jiangsu province has remained closed this year due to environmental reasons.