Local government failings lead to smokestack violations in Hebei

Despite the resoluteness of the central government in curbing smokestack industries, the city of Handan in Hebei province has still been blatantly launching new steel projects, officials with the country's central environmental inspection have found.

While China as a whole slashed its steel production capacity, Hebei Xinjin Iron and Steel demolished one of its blast furnaces in 2021, only to then just built another one in its place. Without passing energy consumption and environmental impact assessments, the company built a new furnace with an annual capacity of 1.2 million metric tons, according to a news release from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

Led by ministerial-level officials, the inspection teams reported to a central leading group headed by Vice-Premier Han Zheng. The office of the inspection is based in the ministry.

Hongrong Iron and Steel, a subsidiary of Hebei Xin Wu'an Steel Group, was also found to have built a blast furnace with an annual capacity of 1.4 million tons, despite the company not going through the necessary procedures.

When inspectors visited the two companies secretly in February, they found that construction on the two illegal furnaces had almost been completed.

"Currently, the two furnaces have been demolished. But relevant local government bodies claim that they knew nothing about the violations," the ministry said. "This exposes that they have failed to adequately fulfill their supervision duties."

Hebei Xinjin Iron and Steel lied about its progress in slashing capacity in order to get government subsidies, inspectors also found.

Turning a blind eye to the misconduct, local authorities even confirmed that the company had fulfilled its obligations, which helped the company get a government subsidy of about 63.8 million yuan ($10 million), according to the release.

The Handan government has failed to effectively promote the work on slashing steel capacity. Related departments breached their supervision duties, the ministry said.

It's the second time that inspection teams have exposed violations after they began touring five provincial regions, including Hebei province and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, late last month for monthlong inspections.

Also on Thursday, the ministry exposed violations in the other four regions over resource exploitation and air and water pollution.

Smokestack projects were listed as key areas for inspection shortly after the country announced its targets for peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and realizing carbon neutrality before 2060.

During a video conference on the topic in late August, Han stressed the need to resolutely curb the blind development of projects with high energy consumption and heavy carbon emissions.

Existing smokestack projects that do not meet the requirements should be rectified, while new projects failing to meet the requirements should not be approved, he said. Enterprises that violate laws and regulations should be strictly investigated and dealt with.

He also underlined carrying out strict project examination and approval, strengthening daily oversight and firmly adhering to laws and procedures.