The National Development and Reform Commission has given the Beijing Shougang Group, China's leading steel maker, approval to move all its polluting plants from Beijing to neighboring Hebei Province by 2010, sources from the company confirmed Monday. The plan was officially ratified on February 18.

Shougang has cut steel output in the past few years and will reduce annual output of its Beijing plants to four million tons by 2007. Steel production in the capital will completely end by 2010, although the headquarters, research and development, sales and logistical operations will remain.

Founded in 1919, Shougang is considered the flagship of Chinese industry. But in the past decade, its name has become more closely associated with air pollution.

The Beijing Environmental Protection Monitoring Center reports that air quality in the Chinese capital has steadily improved in recent years. In 2004, 62.5 percent of days were ranked "fine" or better.

But experts have said that if Shougang is not moved out of the city, Beijing's air quality will not meet the standard the government promised in its bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

The company has promised that the move does not mean the simple transfer of polluting facilities to Hebei Province.

Shougang will also upgrade equipment and employ new technologies to increase efficiency and cut waste, thus reducing the environmental impact of the new base, according to Zhu Jimin, Shougang's board chairman.

The new 20-square-kilometer plant will be located in Caofeidian, an island 80 kilometers south of the coastal city of Tangshan.

Shougang is currently situated in Beijing's western suburbs. It has long been known as the capital's worst polluter, with its chimneys belching out thick clouds of smoke.

(Xinhua News Agency March 1, 2005)