China’s heavy industry includes the energy,
iron and steel, machinery and chemical industries. In 1999,
the added value produced by heavy industry in state-owned
enterprises and industrial enterprises above a certain scale
amounted to 1,161.7 billion yuan. Among coal, petroleum and
electric power, coal is the major energy source. Large
coalfields include Datong in Shanxi, Kailuan in Hebei,
Pingdingshan in Henan, Huaibei in Anhui, Yanzhou in
Shandong, Xuzhou in Jiangsu, Jixi in Heilongjiang, and Tiefa
in Liaoning—16 in all. In recent years, along with the
restructuring of the industrial system, the economic growth
in coal enterprises has reflected their change to the
intensive type; at the same time diversified operations have
developed rapidly. Now, key coal mines in China have set up
17,000 diversified-operation enterprises, the output value
of which exceeds half of the total coal output value.
The petroleum industry is
distributed mainly in the Daqing Oilfield in Heilongjiang
and Liaohe Oilfield in Liaoning, Shengli Oilfield in
Shandong, Huabei Oilfield in Hebei and Dagang Oilfield in
Tianjin. In recent years, three basins rich in oil deposits
have been discovered in Tarim, Turpan-Hami, and Junggar
basins. In addition to many large onshore oil and natural
gas operations, a number of offshore operations are
continuing in the Bohai Sea, and the east and west of the
South China Sea.
Two newly-organized
groups—the China Petroleum and Natural Gas Group and
the China Petrochemicals Group—are the largest groups
of their kind. The latter, whose business income in 1996 was
38.9 billion US dollars, ranks 62nd among the 500 strongest
conglomerates in the world.
China’s energy industry,
including thermal, hydro and nuclear power, has developed
rapidly. In the 1990s, China’s installed capacity
developed from 100 million kw to 200 million kw, and its
generated energy and installed capacity both ranked second
in the world. There are 58 large hydropower stations, which
have been completed or are under construction in China, and
19 of them have more than one million kw of installed
capacity each. The Ertan, Xiaolangdi and Yangtze River
Three-Gorge hydropower stations, the Lianyungang and
Ling’ao nuclear power engineering projects are under
construction. The Qinshan Nuclear Power Station in Zhejiang
and Dayawan Nuclear Power Station in Guangdong have been
completed. The power grids of the country now cover all the
cities and most of its rural areas.
Large iron and steel enterprises are
distributed in Anshan, Taiyuan, Baotou, Beijing, Shanghai,
Tianjin, Wuhan and Panzhihua. China at present has 24 iron
and steel enterprises which produce one million tons or more
of steel annually each, among them, the Shanghai Baoshan
Iron and Steel Group being newly organized. Some large iron
and steel enterprises use advanced technologies and have
improved their equipment to produce a number of types of
high-class steel, such as cold-rolled steel plates,
cold-rolled silicon steel sheets, zinc-plated steel plates
and steel pipes. Today, China has the capacity to produce
1,400 varieties of steel to more than 20,000 specifications.
In addition, China’s self-sufficiency in rolled steel
has reached 90 percent.
China’s
machine-building industry manufactures farm machinery,
engineering machinery, instruments and meters, general
machinery, heavy mining machinery, machine tools, electrical
engineering equipment, bearings, master tools, food-packing
machinery and automobiles. Through the introduction,
digestion and absorption of high technology, a number of
top-technology industries representing today’s
advanced industrial development level have developed rapidly
and formed initial production scales. For instance, in the
automobile industry, the Changchun First Automobile Group
and Shanghai Automobile Industry Group have introduced
technologies from Germany’s Volkswagen Company to
manufacture sedans. The machine-building industry is capable
of providing other industries with complete sets of
high-level equipment, including large blast furnaces, large
continuous slab and billet casters, electricity generators,
coal mining equipment, petroleum prospecting equipment, oil
drills, oil-refining plants, chemical plants, float-glass
production lines and other complete sets of equipment.
China’s mechanical and electrical products, which have
become pillars of China’s export trade, generated 77
billion US dollars in foreign exchange in 1999.
China’s chemical industry
includes chemical extraction, and production of fertilizers,
pesticides, basic inorganic raw materials, basic organic raw
materials, synthetic fiber monomers, synthetic rubber,
photosensitive materials, rubber products, plastic products,
petrochemicals, chemicals for household use and
pharmaceuticals—more than 40,000 kinds in all. Now
China is among world leaders in terms of the output of more
than 10 varieties of chemicals, such as synthetic ammonia,
chemical fertilizers, sulphuric acid, soda ash and rubber
tyres. Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Dalian and Shenyang are
China’s most important chemical industry bases. China
is self-sufficient in chemical products, and exports such
products to more than 100 countries and regions.
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