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)