4 polluters fail to improve after 2 years

Four companies have refused to take any measures to stop their polluting activities since they were exposed in 2012, the nation's environmental protection authority said on Wednesday.

The offenders failed to reduce their pollution in the past two years, although the environmental protection authorities had ordered them to do so, said Zou Shoumin, head of the Bureau of Environmental Supervision under the Ministry of Environmental Protection. The four include a branch company of Anshan Iron and Steel Group, a large State-owned enterprise.

The four companies will receive tougher punishments from their local courts if they still refuse to improve their pollution control measures, Zou said.

The ministry has reviewed all 93 major pollution cases uncovered in 2012, and said 70 were remedied by shutting down the offending companies or production lines. A further 19 are in the process of improvement.

Zou said the review helped the ministry find many problems with local environmental protection authorities. For example, some local authorities did not apply punishments for some companies until the ministry started its review.