Measures to stabilize price, supply of hogs

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will take a series of measures to stabilize the production and supply of hogs, as the hog price has been declining since September.

The ministry will strengthen monitoring of the market and release authoritative information promptly to guide market expectations, Li Jinghui, a member of the leading Party members group of the ministry, said at a news conference on Friday.

The ministry will instruct agricultural authorities at all levels to keep the production of hogs at a reasonable level, and plan against potential oversupply of hogs and the plummeting of their price after Spring Festival, Li said.

It will also ask hog farmers to enhance their cleaning and sterilizing efforts to cope with a higher risk of swine diseases in winter, he said.

The average price of a live hog in China was 19.7 yuan ($2.8) per kilogram in September, down by 3.2 percent from the price in August, according to Li. The price has continued to drop slightly in October.

The reason for the drop, Li said, is mainly due to an increase in supply.

Metrics of EV component recycling to be improved

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment will improve technological standards to better control solid waste pollution from electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic products, a ministry official said.

It will continue to strengthen inspection on the dismantling of scrapped traction batteries, photovoltaic modules and wind turbine blades, Guo Yijun, head of the ministry's department of solid waste and chemicals, said at a news conference earlier this month.

The ministry attaches great importance to the environmental impact caused by such solid waste, and has worked hard to support the high-quality development of the country's new energy sector, Guo said.

The ministry issued a work plan to regulate the recycling of scrapped equipment in June, and made it clear that it would carry out a national campaign to crack down on the illegal dismantling of electric vehicle batteries, photovoltaic modules, turbine blades and other solid waste, Guo said.

Steps facilitate efficient land usage for logistics

The government has unveiled a set of 10 policy measures aimed at effectively reducing overall societal logistics costs and promoting the high-quality development of modern logistics by allocating and using land resources for the sector more efficiently.

The Ministry of Natural Resources said in a notice on Monday that the measures were meant to guarantee the proper use of land in developing the logistics industry, as the sector serves a leading, basic and strategic role in economic activities.

Specifically, the ministry asked urban planners to plan logistics hubs, parks and distribution centers with a holistic approach, while making sure that newly built residential communities are equipped with distribution centers within a 15-minute radius, and that the areas for commercial, warehousing and other services take up at least 10 percent of new communities.

Other measures include exploring logistics functions at transportation hubs; and halting illegal use of land allocated for logistics being used for other commercial purposes.