Cleaner Production and Circular Economy for Cement Industrial Sector in China

Wang Hengchen, et al.
China-Canada CP Project
 October 2004

Executive Summary

The Chinese cement industry is the largest of that sector in the world. Until early 2004, it continued to grow well, driven by strong demand for construction and new housing in many urban centers. The industry is highly fragmented, characterized by very large numbers, about 85%, of small, vertical shaft-kiln type facilities which operate at village and township levels. There are a few modern rotary kilns, same as those used in the EU and USA with energy efficiency and less pollution and material consumption.

The Chinese government has imposed the macro economic control measures for some overheated industries, and cement manufacturing is one of them. In accordance with the control measures announced in Spring this year, the NDRC (National Development and Reform Commission), one of the nation’s leading industrial watchdogs, announced that full implementation of control would be strengthened by restrictions on land use and bank loans to prevent a repeat of overheated investment in that sector, which witnessed an alarming 80% growth rate in 2003.

NDRC considers that future investment in cement industries should be directed to the improvement of production facilities to reduce the cost of unit production, to meeting the challenges of energy efficiency and the shortage of raw materials including coal and electricity as well as water, and to the implementation of Cleaner Production (CP) and the Circular Economy (CE) in that industrial sector.

View or Download the complete case study and report:

• CP and CE for Cement Industrial Sector in China (15 pages, 59KB) (this file is in pdf format and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free download)

©NDRC 2000-2006