China plans to shut petchem plants along Yangtze River

According to the country’s local media, China will close all petrochemical ventures along the Yangtze River by the end of June 2018.

Accordingly, the country will urge legal petrochemical enterprises within a 1-kilometer radius of the Yangtze River to relocate. The illegally operating ventures with excessive pollutant emissions will be shut down by 2020 in line with the Chinese government’s strict environmental policy.

The Yangtze River Economic Belt is home to more than 400,000 chemical enterprises, the media reported.

The decision was deemed a part of China’s growing focus on pollution prevention.