Mineral Resources and Basic Industries in the People's Republic of China by K P Wang

Author:K P Wang [Wang, K P]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science & Nature, Science, Mineralogy, Earth Sciences, Rocks & Minerals, Social Science, Political Science, World, Juvenile Nonfiction, Nature, Asian, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9780429746505
Google: 8gzMDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 50669616
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

4

Iron and Steel

Production and Prospects

PRC's steel production is now roughly on a par with that of France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. The last firm output figure officially reported is 25 million metric tons for 1973 (Ta-Kung Pao of 5 September 1974, p. 1); this compares with 23 million tons in 1972 and 21 million tons in 1971. Estimates for 1974 range from 24 to 27 million tons, and the author is inclined to agree with the high figure. No doubt the PRC would have liked to see output in 1975 reach 30 million tons, which is probably already much below the Fourth Five-Year Plan target of possibly 35 million tons. However, the most optimistic figure that can be assigned is 29 million tons.

Clearly, the Chinese are having trouble meeting near-future goals. They do not have the immediate capability of building sufficient capital equipment internally to boost steel output to a new plateau and are concerned about spending too much foreign exchange to purchase plants from abroad. The principal deals that have been arranged pertain mainly to steel rolling mills and fabrication plants rather than basic steelmaking facilities. It seems likely that the Chinese will only be able to raise steel capacity by about 10 to 12 million tons in the next five years. Meanwhile, demand is likely to increase sharply, and monies spent on imports of metal products might be better diverted to purchase of capital equipment. In any case, a strong investment push in China's iron and steel industry simultaneously to produce as much basic equipment as possible and to import what is absolutely needed is a likely development.

The pressure to expand the steel industry substantially will increase as a result of the anticipated sharp rise in oil output and consumption and the trend towards greater industrialization. The time does not seem too far away when China will need at least a 50-million-ton-per-year steel industry or even a 100-million-ton steel industry. The question is how this could be built.

Fortunately, China has the resources, manpower capability, and infrastructure eventually to attain these objectives. The matter of utilizing available low-grade resources can be resolved with improved technology in much the same way that the U.S. primary-iron raw material industry has been rejuvenated through investing in beneficiation and pelletizing. China can always import high-grade iron ore either to sweeten the blast furnace charge or to use in new, integrated coastal steel plants that might be built. Blending and coal forming will help the coking-coal supply.

The fact that a Japanese trade mission headed by the president of the Nippon Steel Corporation visited China for sixteen days beginning 21 July, 1975 indicates the possibility of Japanese help in building up China's steel and other industries. The Japanese visited Talien, Chenyang, Ansha, Fushun, and other industrial cities to see steel mills, petrochemical complexes, coal mines, and shipyards in China. Subsequently, the presidents of six Japanese oil refinery companies were also scheduled to go to China. In promoting such trips, the International Trade Promotion Association

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