Chinese government inspectors labeled China Minmetals Corp.'s steelmaking unit Minmetals Yingkou Medium Plate Co. Ltd. a "repeat offender" over environmental violations, Reuters reported Aug. 22.
This comes shortly after the company suspended production at rare earths unit Ganxian Hongjin Rare Earth Co. Ltd. over environmental breaches. Minmetals Yingkou has an annual steel production capacity of 6 million tonnes.
Minmetals Yingkou had failed to replace outdated blast furnaces and production lines and had not aptly addressed its pollution discharges, according to a notice posted on the environment ministry's official account on Wechat, a Chinese social media platform, Reuters added.
The notice further said the unit had deceptively applied for special "green factory" status from the local government in China's northeastern province of Liaoning, despite being fined 23.3 million Chinese yuan for violations from 2014 to 2018.
China Minmetals told Reuters that it will improve the management for Minmetals Yingkou, "conscientiously rectify" the identified problems and conduct an investigation to determine who was responsible for the violations.
As of Aug. 21, US$1 was equivalent to 7.06 Chinese yuan.
