Development and Reform Commission puts forward: The balance of production and demand in the calcium carbide industry within three years

The National Development and Reform Commission announced on May 11 the "Circular on Accelerating the Opinions on the Structural Adjustment of the Calcium Carbide Industry", and proposed to completely shut down and eliminate calcium carbide furnaces below 5,000 KVA and below 10,000 tons of annual output, and discharge substandard emissions, and strictly control new ones. The project, through three years of hard work, adapts the production capacity to the market demand. At present, calcium carbide production capacity exceeds actual demand by a factor of two.

The "Notice" stated that it will strengthen economic measures such as price and taxation and economic levers, implement the national differential tariff policy for the calcium carbide industry, increase the intensity of sewage disposal penalties, and strengthen the management of licenses. Further study and formulate specific measures to implement differential electricity prices for enterprises of different scales and different technologies and equipment, and resolutely cancel the preferential electricity price policies introduced by various localities. The calcium carbide furnaces and open type calcium carbide furnaces below 5,000 kVA (1 million tons/year or less) will be eliminated. Electricity is charged at RMB 0.05/kWh.

The eastern coastal areas and regions where energy and resources are relatively scarce are in principle prohibited from building new calcium carbide production projects. Support large-scale PVC production enterprises to establish large-scale calcium carbide production bases in the central and western regions with resource advantages through merger and transformation.

Statistics show that at the end of 2005, domestic calcium carbide production capacity has reached 17 million tons, which is twice the actual output of 8.94 million tons that year, and the production capacity has far exceeded the market demand. According to statistics, projects currently under construction and planned to be put into operation in succession will continue to produce a net increase of 1 million to 1.5 million tons of production capacity each year. According to this growth measure, the calcium carbide production capacity will exceed 22 million tons in 2010.