Since the start of October, low-emission-zone rules for high-emission non-road machinery have taken effect across a wave of Chinese cities and counties. Under Haiyan County’s notice (Yan Zheng Fa [2026] No. 28), the designated port area bans all non-road diesel machinery at China Tier-II or below — or failing the Class III smoke limits of GB 36886-2018 — around the clock from October 15, alongside restrictions on China-IV diesel trucks. Xiangtan County enforces similar bans from October 10 in its core urban zone and at construction sites, mines, ports, and logistics parks; Daye City’s ban zone has applied since October 1.
How non-road machinery gets flagged
Local notices use a two-track definition of “high emission”: by stage — Tier-II and below, including machinery produced before April 2016 registered as Stage X — or by measurement, where even newer machines fail if smoke opacity exceeds the GB 36886-2018 Class III limits during supervisory testing. That means aging Tier-III units in poor condition can also be pulled from service. Under the new Environmental Code, these zones now carry enforceable penalties rather than administrative guidance.
What this means for AIFILTECH customers
First, for owners and rental fleets working ports, mines, and logistics parks, there is a middle path between early scrappage and full replacement: retrofitting in-service wheel loaders and excavators with particulate purification systems that hold smoke opacity within Class III limits. Second, because site inspections test opacity and Ringelmann blackness, a retrofit’s backpressure behavior and regeneration reliability decide whether the machine passes over the long run — initial price alone is the wrong metric. Third, the ban-zone list keeps expanding, so procurement plans should specify equipment that can operate inside these zones from day one.
AIFILTECH supplies non-road exhaust gas purifiers and wheel loader exhaust purifiers (black smoke control) for construction machinery fleets facing smoke limits and low-emission-zone enforcement.
