Beijing steel maker cuts output, pollution by 70%

2008-7-11  |     ONLINE EDITION

BEIJING Shougang Group, one of China's leading steel makers and the capital's major polluter, is fulfilling its commitment to cut output and pollution by 70 percent for the Olympic Games, a company source said today.

The Beijing plants of the group have slashed monthly production to 200,000 tonnes in the third quarter, said the group's president Zhu Jimin. "This is about 29 percent of our normal output."

Through June, Shougang had extinguished the fires in three of its four blast furnaces at its Beijing plants.

These plants, which formerly produced 8.2 million tonnes of steel a year, would almost halve their output this year to 4.2 million tonnes, before all their Beijing production was stopped by2010.

This year's output cut will put the group's Beijing plants in the red and slash the group's annual profits by at least 2 billion yuan (US$285 million), Zhu said.

He said the losses would hopefully be offset by the group's new steel projects, notably its new plant in Caofeidian, an islet in the neighboring Hebei Province that will turn out 4.85 million tonnes of steel a year after its first phase starts operation in October. In two years, the new plant will be producing up to 10 million tonnes a year.

Meanwhile, Shougang's new cold rolling mill in Shunyi District in northeastern Beijing is producing 1.5 million tons a year.

"We'll also exploit our advantages in other sectors," Zhu said. These will include tourism, entertainment and other tertiary industries.

After the relocation, the old factory site in western Beijing will be developed into a complex for tourism and entertainment, cultural business, and commercial and residential compound with an expanded area of 856 hectares from 707 hectares.

"We'll be responsible for our shareholders and will protect their practical and long-term interests," Zhu said.