China sets long-term target for scrapping outdated producers

Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

BEIJING, May 4 (Xinhua) -- China's government will eradicate more obsolete industrial plants in the next three years to maintain economic growth and boost industrial restructuring and upgrading, the country's top economic planner said.

The government would eliminate 72 million tonnes of obsolete iron capacity and 25 million tonnes of obsolete steel capacity by 2011, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in an announcement on its website late Sunday.

Blast furnaces smaller than 300 cubic meters, and electric arc furnaces and converters of up to 20 tonnes capacity would be gradually eliminated, said the statement.

The plan also requires an elimination of 300,000 tonnes of obsolete copper-producing capacity this year, while that of lead would be reduced by 600,000 tonnes and zinc by 400,000 tonnes in two years.

The light industry and textile industry is also required to slash 2 million tonnes of obsolete paper production capacity and 7.5 billion meters of obsolete textile-printing capacity by 2011, according to the announcement.

Oil refiners with annual processing capacity of less than 1 million tonnes will be shut down in the next three years, it said.

Obsolete capacity elimination and industrial upgrading are seen as the focus of the government's efforts in energy conservation and emission cuts this year, an unidentified NDRC official told Xinhua.

The government would shut down coal-burning power stations with a total production capacity of 1.5 million kilowatts by the end of2009, according to an earlier government report.

It was also aiming to eliminate obsolete capacity of iron production this year by 10 million tonnes, steel production by 6 million tonnes and paper production by 500,000 tonnes, it said.