A total of nearly 2,100 enterprises must eliminate backwards production capacity in 18 different industries before September 2010 or face closure, according to a public announcement released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Aug. 8.

The enterprises mainly involved are 760 cement plants, 280 paper mills, 200 printing and dyeing mills, 175 coke factories, 175 ironworks, 140 ferroalloy works and 80 tanneries. 

Li Yi, minister of the MIIT, said that according to relevant files released by the State Council, the emissions permits of those enterprises that do not eliminate their backwards production capacity within the time limit will be revoked. 

The National Development and Reform Committee said on Aug. 6 that by July 14, the 22 provinces, regions and cities in which China had implemented a national preferential electricity price policy on high energy-consuming enterprises have cancelled their local preferential electricity price policies. All the high energy-consuming enterprises have begun carrying out the new national preferential electricity price policy.

Statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics last week revealed that the energy consumption per GDP in the first four years during the "11th Five-Year Plan" dropped nearly 16 percent and is expected to decline about 5 percent in 2010. The industrial added value per unit of energy consumption will decline 7 percent.

In the first half of 2010, China's energy consumption increased about 11 percent compared to the same period last year, while GDP increased about 11 percent, and energy consumption per GDP rose nearly 0.1 percent compared to the same period last year.