BEIJING SHOUGANG STEEL EYES BLUE SKIES THROUGH SMOKE
07.18.08 - Leído 21 veces. Enviar esta notaLucy Hornby
The head of Shougang Group on Thursday smiled with satisfaction over this week’s four days of blue skies, even as smoke and steam still wreathed his steel plant less than a month before the Olympics
BEIJING, China; July 18, 2008.- “This blue sky is partly the result of our efforts. I will be happy if it’s like this for the Olympics too,” Zhu Jimin told reporters, before kicking off a tour of idled furnaces at China’s seventh largest steelmaker and Beijing’s largest polluter.
Beijing has ordered polluting plants in the capital city and surrounding provinces to either shut or meet emissions standards, to reduce air pollution during the Olympic Games that begin on Aug. 8.
Some plants have already closed, and car traffic will be limited from Sunday.
Shougang — which is also in the process of shifting production to a new, modern mill on the Hebei coast to reduce emissions — will operate at 27 percent capacity during the Olympics.
It has shut some of its oldest, most polluting plants but will not completely cease operations in Beijing until late 2010. It plans to produce 4 million tonnes of steel this year, including its reduction in the third quarter for the Games.
The new plant at Caofeidian in Hebei will begin production in October. About 60,000 employees are losing their jobs in the phased move, since the new plant will require far fewer workers.
In the rusting cavern that was Blast Furnace No. 4, a steelworker surnamed Liu pointed out where the molten iron had poured out. After the move, he will see his wife and child only during once-a-week visits, since they will stay in Beijing while he goes to work at the new plant.
“Some people feel a bit emotional about closing down here, but it’s for the Olympics and it will make Beijing a better city,” Liu said.
(Reuters)
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