Zhu Jimin, delegate to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), secretary of Party Committee and President of Shougang Group, stated in an interview with China.org.cn that the Shougang Group invested 2.1 billion yuan (US$280 million) in environmental protection efforts from 1995 to 2006.
After ten years of ceaseless efforts, their overall waste discharge in 2006 had been lowered: sulfur dioxide, soot and dust discharges have dropped by 78 percent, 82 percent and 84 percent respectively in comparison with 1995 discharges. Today soot and dust is rarely seen around Shougang's former operations.
Shougang has also expanded its factory. Currently, the Shougang factory has become a garden area and scenic spot of the nation's steel industry.
Zhu believes that the key to pollution treatment is the source of the pollution. Shougang has developed technology focusing on this area. It introduced both domestic and foreign advanced technologies in order to resolve source related pollution problems. In the past pollutants produced from coal coking dirtied the air. In order to solve this problem, Shougang introduced new advanced technology that fundamentally changed the coal coking process. Shougang is also cooperating with Japan to promote this technology.
“We now convert the residual heat and energy and turn the discharged steam into hot water which can be used by local residents. Steel waste is used in making cement materials. We have established a production line consisting of 600,000 tons of water wastes and 300,000 tons of steel slag," said Zhu Jimin.
"In addition to combating its own pollution problems, Shougang has begun to develop a friendly relationship with nature. We've developed the 'white waste recovery technology': mixing pieces of white waste with coal and transforming the mixture into an organic fuel. This method can not only solves pollution problems but also provides energy resources for other enterprises. We've made some sacrifices by adopting such practices. But I think that these sacrifices are worthwhile since they are beneficial to both society and nature and may help Shougang to explore a faster, more benign development path."
"Despite rising costs and investments, we have begun to earn profits from our efforts in fighting against pollution recently. Regarding the dry dust removing technology in large volume blast furnaces and the coke dry quenching technology, both have been sold to other enterprises. And in return, we've made reasonable profits. In fact, Shougang has reached internationally advanced levels in pollution treatment."
(China.org.cn by Zhang Ming'ai, October 24, 2007)
