China mulls tough emissions rules for cement makers: media
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's environment ministry is planning to launch stricter rules regarding nitrogen oxide emissions from cement plants, a policy change that an industry representative warned could wipe out a third of the industry's total net profits, the China Business News reported on Wednesday.
The report illustrates the challenges faced by the government to balance pressures for strong economic growth with public demands to lessen pollutants caused by industries that operate with few environmental restrictions.
China had previously said it plans to cut the cement industry's overall nitrogen oxide emissions, a key cause of acid rain and photochemical smog, by 10 percent by 2015.
Chinese Vice Minister of Environment Protection Zhang Lijun, during a visit to the Anhui Conch Cement Co last month, told accompanying officials and executives that the ministry plans to introduce stricter rules, the Shanghai-based daily reported.
The newspaper cited Kong Xiangzhong, the president of China's cement industry association, as saying that the ministry is considering tightening nitrogen oxide emission standards to 400 mg per cubic metre from the current 800 mg per cubic metre -- a move that would increase the unit cost of cement by up to 20 yuan.
"It will translate into huge pressure for the cement industry," Kong was quoted as saying.
Kong said unit net profit for cement makers in southern and eastern Chinese provinces was about 80 yuan, but cement makers in other Chinese regions can only make about 50 yuan for each tonne of cement produced.
China's cement industry, polluting but profitable, has thrived during China's infrastructure spending spree -- Conch Cement, for instance, announced that its 2011 net profit is expected to be at least 80 percent higher than in 2010.
China is the world's largest cement producer, with some 3,000 plants producing 2 billion tonnes annually. Beijing announced earlier that it wants to shut at least a third of the country's cement plants by 2015. (Reporting by Zhou Xin and Don Durfee; Editing by Ken Wills)