Restarting Machines After Shutdown Is Costly

　　Shen Te Steel is located in the Economic Development Zone of Liyang City, Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province. Zhujiabu Village is less than 1 kilometer in a straight line from the wall of the Shen Te Steel plant. Villagers accuse it of polluting the village, especially by secretly discharging at night. According to the Liyang City Environmental Protection Bureau, villages within the health protection distance of Shen Te Steel have been relocated and resettled in 8 natural villages, and 5 natural villages are currently being demolished.

　　Regarding the nighttime "secret discharge," Shen Te Steel General Manager Zhang Haibin explained, "What the company discharges is mainly white water vapor. Under different lighting conditions, water vapor can appear in different colors; for example, at dusk it looks like yellow smoke is being discharged." Zhang Haibin further explained that environmental protection facilities are not shut down easily, and certainly do not operate during the day and stop at night. First, the equipment does not allow this; second, once operation stops, restarting is extremely costly. Zhang Haibin admitted that during production, improper worker operations may cause problems such as yellow or black smoke.

　　The Company Was Rated "Energy-Saving," "Low-Carbon," and "Water-Saving"

　　According to reports, Shen Te Steel's predecessor was Liyang City Jianxin Iron Plant, built in 2002. In 2005, it purchased some assets transferred from Shanghai Baosteel and took in about 600 Baosteel employees, shifting from ironmaking to steelmaking, and established Jiangsu Shen Te Steel Co., Ltd. Shen Te Steel currently has more than 4,000 employees and achieved sales output value of 35 billion yuan in 2012. Although Shen Te Steel has Baosteel's "bloodline," there is currently no asset relationship between the two; Shen Te Steel is now a Sino-foreign joint venture.

　　"Since 2005, Shen Te Steel has invested approximately 870 million yuan in energy conservation and environmental protection," Zhang Haibin said. Shen Te Steel has been awarded "Advanced Energy-Saving Unit" by the Jiangsu Provincial Economic and Information Commission, "Jiangsu Province Water-Saving Enterprise" by the Jiangsu Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Water Resources, and "Green Low-Carbon Enterprise" by the China Product Quality Association. In April this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published its first list of 45 steel enterprises meeting the "Steel Industry Standard Conditions (2012 Revision)," and Shen Te Steel was among them.