Recently, the "2017 Off-Peak Production Work Meeting for Cement Enterprises in Hebei, Shandong, and Henan", co-hosted by the China Cement Association and the building materials industry associations of Hebei, Shandong, and Henan, was held in Shijiazhuang. It is understood that the theme of the meeting was "Consolidate the achievements of off-peak production and oppose low-price dumping". By summarizing the experience of off-peak production and analyzing problems in the implementation process, participants exchanged and discussed, aiming to fully implement the off-peak production policy, consolidate the achievements of off-peak production, stabilize the market competition order after the start of production, and strengthen the industry self-discipline convention. Hao Zhushan, Deputy Director of the Hebei Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, Yue Quanhua, Deputy Director of the Building Materials Division of the Raw Materials Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and Kong Xiangzhong, Executive Vice President of the China Cement Association, delivered important speeches at the meeting. Jiang Changlu, President of the Hebei Building Materials Industry Association, Wang Aizhen, President of the Henan Building Materials Industry Association, and Li Feng, President of the Shandong Building Materials Industry Association, respectively made concluding remarks on the implementation of off-peak production in their provinces.

Hao Zhushan pointed out that the frequent large-scale smog weather in the northern region has seriously affected people's lives, especially the superposition of coal for heating and industrial coal in winter is one of the important reasons, and coal burning in cement kilns in winter will also aggravate the degree of pollution. Last year, the State Council Office Document [2016] No. 34 explicitly required the implementation of off-peak production, marking that off-peak production has risen from an enterprise and industry self-discipline behavior to a major industrial policy for the national cement industry and building materials industry, so cement enterprises must strictly implement off-peak production. Off-peak production reduces environmental pollution and realizes the scientific and rational allocation and organizational scheduling of social resources. At the same time, it is also an industrial policy for the cement industry at this stage to reduce capacity, stabilize growth, and increase efficiency. It is an important part of promoting supply-side structural reform and is truly meaningful work that benefits the country and the people. The Hebei Provincial Government, based on the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Air Pollution Prevention and Control Strengthening Measures (2016-2017) and the Hebei Province Heavy Pollution Weather Emergency Plan, and drawing on the experience of the cement industry, expanded the scope of off-peak production to heavily polluting industries such as casting, steel, and coking, with remarkable results.

Kong Xiangzhong hoped that everyone would fully recognize the purpose and significance of holding this off-peak production meeting. At the same time, he analyzed that last year's industry profit was 51.8 billion yuan, which, although significantly improved from 33 billion yuan the previous year, did not increase compared with the industry's sales revenue last year and the year before. Thus, it can be concluded that last year's profit growth was mainly the result of reduced losses and turning losses into profits by northern cement enterprises. Therefore, in 2017, northern cement enterprises need to continue to expand the achievements of off-peak production and strengthen industry self-discipline. In 2017, market demand will not grow significantly. Under the background of severe overcapacity, it is necessary to do a good job in off-peak production and kiln shutdown and production limitation, actively implement the market output placement of supply-side structural reform, and maintain the balance of supply and demand. The industry's efficiency will mainly depend on the further implementation and expansion of the off-peak production policy. He said that in 2017, the supply-side structural reform of the cement industry should, while increasing efficiency through off-peak production, also launch the work of reducing capacity. The China Cement Association has proposed the policy recommendation of establishing provincial-level cement investment management companies to undertake special funds, and is also contacting multiple provinces and regions to carry out pilot work on structural adjustment and innovation in the cement industry. For cement grinding stations with extremely low capacity utilization rates, the China Cement Association also recommends policy exploration to force the accelerated withdrawal of backward capacity through product quality monitoring means.

In his speech, Yue Quanhua pointed out that last year's Document No. 351 issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Environmental Protection was highly valued by local government authorities and cement enterprises and was conscientiously implemented. Recently, five departments of the State Council carried out special inspections on the elimination of backward capacity in cement and glass, and off-peak production was listed as a key inspection content. From the preliminary inspection situation, not only have the northern heating provinces conscientiously implemented the off-peak production policy, but the southern provinces in non-heating areas also attach great importance to it. From the 2015-2016 off-peak production situation, the northern region reduced cement clinker output by 150 million tons, reduced coal consumption by 16.95 million tons, reduced dust emissions by 28,000 tons, nitrogen oxides by 198,000 tons, and sulfur dioxide by 24,000 tons, which largely suppressed the generation of smog and promoted the development of air pollution control work. He said that the policy of off-peak production will be normalized, and all cement enterprises must understand the significance of off-peak production from the height of promoting supply-side structural reform, which is particularly important for the cement industry with severe overcapacity. Next, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the industry authorities of the provincial and regional economic and information commissions (industry and information commissions) will continue to play the coordinating role of the China Cement Association in the market, and also play the role of industry associations in reducing capacity, promote the reduction of capacity in the cement industry, explore ways to reduce capacity, and work together to complete the goals and tasks proposed in Document No. 34 during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period.