BEIJING (Reuters) - China's northern province of Hebei asked 10 major cities to issue second-level, or "orange", pollution alerts due to expected smog, the provincial environment bureau said in a statement on Wednesday.
That marks the second orange warnings issued by the region in the last two weeks.
Cities in Hebei, which include the top steelmaking hub of Tangshan, are set to enforce emergency smog reduction measures from 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) on Wednesday until Nov. 5, the statement said.
Under an orange alert, the second-highest warning behind red in China's four-tier system, steel mills must halve their output, while coal-fired power utilities must operate at "minimum" levels.
The environment ministry at its regular briefing on Wednesday again warned of adverse weather conditions this winter in northern and eastern China.
(Reporting by Muyu Xu and Dominique Patton; Editing by Joseph Radford and Christian Schmollinger)
