The Danang People's Committee on Friday announced that they have temporarily suspended the Dana-Italy Steel Plant and the Dana-Australia Steel Plant in Hoa Vang District for six months for causing pollution to the environment.
The Dana-Italy Steel Plant was also fined VND400 million (USD17,391) while the Dana-Australia Steel fined VND740 million for their violations.
During their operation, the two plants have been found to use different production chains which have higher capacity than registered, the inspectors said.
Annual production outputs are tens of thousand tonnes higher than permitted. Between 2008 and 2015, new machinery was installed which changed the production capacity but the company did not report the upgrading to local authorities.
The Dana-Italy Steel Plant has been violating environment regulations as they changed to a different exhaust treatment system from that previously approved, the report said.
Both plants also failed to plant trees following the approved plan by local authorities.
Speaking at a recent meeting on the plants' violations, chairman of Danang City People's Committee, Huynh Duc Tho, admitted that they were wrong to build the two plants near the residential area.
"And then we haven't been unable to remove local people from the area," Tho said.
Tho also expressed concerns that while there were not enough evidence to close the two plants, the temporary suspension may not solve the problems.
"Can the two plants operate again after the suspension time while they are still too close to the residential area?" Tho asked. "This is a very difficult case and we have intensified the monitoring of their fixing pollution risks to ensure that they can cause no harm to the environment when they operate again."