A gigantic incinerator manufacturing base, reportedly the largest
in the country, is to be completed within the year in Changzhou in
east China's
Jiangsu
Province, local industry sources revealed.
Located in Changzhou State Environmental Protection Industry Park,
the 6.7-hectare plant, which comprises the latest Japanese
technology, will produce various types of incinerators with daily
rubbish processing capacities varying between 30 to 450 tons,
according to the publicity authority with the park.
JFE Holdings Inc, Japan's leading steel industry group which
occupies around 40 percent of the Japanese incinerator market, has
signed an agreement to join the project by exporting a complete set
of incinerator manufacturing technologies.
Wang Zhongliang, a publicity director with the park, told China
Daily that the plant is expected to become "the largest incinerator
design and manufacturing base in the country," meeting the
country's increasing demand for urban solid waste processing
equipment.
Changzhou Lucky Environmental Protection Equipment Engineering Co
Ltd, a Hong Kong-Changzhou joint venture, which is the main
investor of the project, has poured an initial 10 million yuan
(US1.2 million) into the plant.
"The project will fill the gap in China's production of large-scale
incinerators which can be used in cities like Beijing and
Shanghai," said Chen Baihuai, general manager of the company.
The price will be cut by about a half, compared with imported
equipment, he added.
Currently, most of the country's operating rubbish incineration
facilities, especially large-scale ones, are imported, according to
Chen. Domestic businesses can only produce incinerators with a
daily rubbish capability of 100 tons or less.
Statistics released by the State Environmental Protection
Administration (SEPA) said China's solid waste has become a major
pollution source, with an annual discharge of nearly 10 million
tons.
Landfill, incineration and compost are the three major household
waste disposal methods.
Of
the three, landfill is the most popular in China, with more than 85
percent of the country's household waste buried in rubbish plants
after being treated.
To
save the urban space, some big cities like Shanghai, Beijing,
Ningbo, Zhuhai and Shenzhen have also built a few incinerators
which generate electricity from processed waste. But most of that
type of equipment is imported from Japan, the United States and
Europe.
(China Daily June 20, 2003)