Hebei Province-based Chinese steelmaker Handan Iron and Steel will shut down a 900 m3 blast furnace by the end of September within the scope of national policy on energy saving and emissions reduction.

Meanwhile, according to figures posted by Handan Statistics Bureau, in the period from January to August this years Handan city's energy consumption per unit of GDP fell by about three percent compared with the corresponding period of 2009; furthermore, total electricity consumption in Handan amounted to 22.399 billion kWh, up by 15.13 percent year on year, with this growth dropping by 5.17 percentage points compared with the figure for the first six months of 2010.