Steel mills in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province  are fully suspended for now and are likely to resume operations in late June. 

A local steel plant had completed the rectification, and will resume operation after the government’s round of inspections around June 20. It is unlikely that Xuzhou steelmakers will resume operation before June 11, as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Qingdao ends that day. 

Some showed concerns that another round of environmental inspection will affect their production as China started to review on previous environmental inspection across 10 provinces including Jiangsu from Monday May 28.

If environmental inspection teams from the central government are established in Jiangsu, Xuzhou will be one of the first cities in the province to be impacted. Since April 11, steel mills across Xuzhou have been suspended for rectifications and cannot resume production until they pass inspection conducted by the environmental inspection team.

• [Editor:Wang Linyan]