Beijing announced Tuesday it will no longer approve any new cement production project in the rural part of the city and set an output ceiling for the city's cement industry to curb pollution.

A spokesman for the Development Planning Commission with the Beijing Municipal Government said Beijing's total annual output of cement would fall below 8 million tons.

The annual cement production capacity in the city was down to 8.18 million tons last year from 9.93 million tons several years ago thanks to the close-down of cement plants that were energy-inefficient, highly polluting and technologically inferior, the spokesman said.

Beijing issued a circular Tuesday to the effect that all the outdated cement production lines in the city should be closed before the end of 2005, with Niulanshan Cement Plant in Shunyi District by the end of this year, and those plants in Fangshan District before January 1, 2004.

According to the circular, cement plants which fail to meet the environmental protection requirements set by the government will be ordered to close before they meet the requirements.

(Xinhua News Agency September 17, 2002)