Orient Paper, Baoding City, China, a leading manufacturer and distributor of diversified paper products in North China, announced on Monday (December 14) that it will temporarily suspend its production of regular CMP, light weight CMP, offset printing paper and digital photo paper from December 14 to December 31, in accordance with a mandate issued by the Xushui Environmental Protection Bureau of Baoding City.

 

The mandate reflects the Chinese government’s stepped-up anti-smog efforts in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Shandong, Henan, and Shanxi provinces following Beijing’s first red alert for smog last week. The red alert, the most serious level under a four-tier emergency response system created in October 2013, has triggered shutdown of schools, highways, and construction activities from 7:00 a.m. on December 8 to 12:00 p.m. on December 10.

In addition to paper manufacturing, the mandate suspends textile printing and dyeing, cement, mining, construction, and chemical manufacturing. Industrial manufacturing activities in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region are occasionally subject to this type of suspensions due to air pollution in North China during the winter.

The temporary suspension of production will not impact the company’s tissue paper operations, which are located in the Economic Development Zone of Wei County, Hebei Province. Production of impacted products will be resumed on Jan. 1, 2016.