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.
