From the WSJ:
Traffic thinned and construction sites went silent on Tuesday as the Chinese capital carried out its highest-level pollution alert for the first time, a move experts said marked official acknowledgment of public perception that previous bouts of bad air had been played down.
City officials restricted industrial production and urged schools to shut their doors among other three-day emergency measures enacted on Tuesday after the city issued what it calls a red alert over pollution levels. Beijing’s more-than-20 million area residents were told to wear face masks outside. Cars with odd-numbered license plates were ordered off the road, while 800 additional public buses and 50 extra subway trains were mustered to take up the slack.
…The air-quality index topped 300 by Tuesday afternoon, a level the Chinese government deems “heavily polluted.” By contrast, the air-quality index in the New York City area at the same time was 49. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said an index reading above 300 is “extremely rare” in the U.S. and generally occurs only during events such as forest fires.
Given much of this pollution emanates from neighboring Hebei steel mills, this can’t help steel output nor iron ore demand.
