顾客在等着呢
想要了解中国对于自然资源的需求增长的有多快，去参观北京郊区的首钢集团吧。轧钢机的故事反映了中国工业不平静的历史。这是中国最早的企业之一，始建于1919年。1949年共产党取得政权之后被国有化，首钢就成为展示中华人民共和国的成就的橱窗。
脚步紧随邓小平的改革开放，首钢已 经从一个中央计划的典型转变成为一个冷血的资本主义清道夫。从前，工厂是个城中之城，包括你可以想象的来自工人的天堂的 一切臭架子。它仍然有自己的报纸，电视台，以及在8平方公里厂区内运送工人的内部巴士服务。但是公司已经裁员18万，并且计划在缩减6万，只留下2万个工 作岗位。它为深圳和香港股市的投资者回报五厘息金，再把收益用于更大更好的设备上面。它生产的钢材被用在许多中国家喻户晓的建设工程，包括三峡大坝，古怪的国家大剧院“鸟蛋”以及横跨上海黄浦江的高耸的吊桥。
但是，首钢主体工厂 的搬迁不会长时间削弱公司的产出。与另外一家中国钢铁公司合作，首钢准备建设一个更大的工厂，建在渤海湾东南约220公里（140海 里）的河北省的一个人工岛上面。这个工厂的初始产能几乎达到1000万吨。由于在河北要布局另外两个工厂，首钢正在把产出从2003年的600万吨提高到 2010年的至少2000万吨。一位发言人表示更长远的发展目标正在制定，而不久之后产出可能会达到3000万吨之多。当被问及首钢因何认为会有需求这么 多钢材的市场的时候，他看起来迷惑不解。中国增长的如此之快，他说，首钢的产品毫无疑问会有销路。
有许多公司做出类似的假设。2006年，中国钢铁公司按产量排名，首钢仅位列第九。中国总共有7000家钢 铁企业，这一数字是2002年的两倍。去年钢产 量增加15%，与2006年的增速基本持平。自从2000年以来，中国的产出是之前的三倍，以占世界总产出的37%而成为全球最大的生产者。2000年到 2005年间，中国占世界钢铁产量增长的四分之三。
中国国内铁矿石的产量是2003年的两倍还多，又让这个国家成为全球最大的生产者。然而， 这还是远不够供应国内激增的钢铁工厂。所以，进口也是飞跃性地增 长，从2003年的1.48亿吨到去年的3.75亿吨。现在中国贡献了铁矿石海运贸易的一半。花旗集团（一家投资银行）估计，到2014年中国的进口将增 加到9亿吨。而过去几年，随着需求量不断超出预期，花旗与其他银行不得不数次调高估计。
例如首钢，在河北有一座铁矿，靠 近工厂，非常方便。但是无法为所有轧钢厂提供足够多的矿石，而其他国内供应商极为稀少，所以公司只能放眼海外以弥补短缺。 1990年代首钢在秘鲁购买了一座矿山，又在2006年控股了一家澳大利亚矿山。除了从这两个地方进口之外，首钢还从国际市场上购买矿石。其新工厂建在海 边，部分提供了这些进口的便利。
许多其他商品都可以讲述极为类似的故事。涵盖几乎所有的矿产，而且采矿企业及投资银行都可以画出描述中国的需求怎样从世纪初以来增长一倍或者两倍的曲线图。去年中国铜进口激增了80%。
中国还进口了前所未有的粮食。这部分由于越来越多的耕地转化为工业用地，部分由于人口的增加。此外，随着中国越来越富裕，人民消费跟多的肉类，而这导致了食品进口的增加：为人民生产食用的肉类所需要的粮食比用谷类养育人民要多得多。
China is determined to make the most of its own limited resources
The customers are waiting
TO SEE just how quickly China‘s demand for natural resources is growing, visit Shougang Group, on the outskirts of Beijing. The story of the mill mirrors the chequered history of Chinese industry. This is one of the country‘s oldest firms, founded in 1919. Nationalised after the Communist takeover in 1949, it was turned into a showcase for the achievements of the People‘s Republic. Pictures of assorted party bigwigs donning hard hats and greeting the workers adorn the walls. During the Great Leap Forward, Zhou Enlai visited the mill to celebrate its bounding output; in the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping came as part of his drive for “socialism with Chinese characteristics”, meaning capitalism with a dose of state ownership.
In keeping with Deng‘s reforms, Shougang has transformed itself from a model of central planning into a cold-blooded capitalist roader. In the old days the mill was a city within a city, complete with all the frills you would expect from a workers‘ paradise. It still has its own newspaper and television station, and an internal bus service to ferry workers around its eight-square-kilometre compound. But the company has already shed 180,000 workers and plans to trim 60,000 more, leaving just 20,000. It has offered shares in five subsidiaries to investors on the stockmarkets in Shenzhen and Hong Kong and spent the proceeds on bigger and better facilities. Its steel has been used in many of China‘s best-known construction projects, including the Three Gorges dam, Beijing‘s curious egg-shaped opera house and a soaring suspension bridge that spans the Huangpu river in Shanghai.
At the furnaces in the centre of the compound, sparks shower down as a mechanical shovel fills a red-hot crucible with coal and iron ore; molten steel pours from another. A temperature gauge reads 1,127°C. Last year the mill turned out 8m tonnes of steel. But later this year it will close, a casualty of the drive to improve Beijing‘s air quality for the Olympics.
The demise of Shougang Steel‘s main plant, however, will not dent the firm‘s output for long. In conjunction with another Chinese steel firm, it is on the verge of opening an even bigger mill, on an artificial island in the Bohai Gulf in Hebei province, about 220km (140 miles) to the south-east. This will have an initial capacity of almost 10m tonnes. What with the expansion of two other mills in Hebei, Shougang is on course to increase its output from 6m tonnes in 2003 to at least 20m tonnes by 2010. A spokesman says further development is already in the works, and output might reach as much as 30m tonnes soon after. Asked whether the firm is confident that there will be a market for all this steel, he looks puzzled. China is growing so fast, he says, that there is no problem selling anything Shougang produces.
There are many more businesses making similar assumptions. Shougang ranked only ninth by output among China‘s steelmakers in 2006. In all, the country has 7,000 of them, twice the number in 2002. Steel production rose by 15% last year, much the same rate of growth as in 2006. Since 2000, China has roughly tripled its output, making it by far the world‘s biggest producer, with 37% of global output. It accounted for about three-quarters of the global growth in steel production between 2000 and 2005.
China‘s domestic production of iron ore has more than doubled since 2003, again making the country the world‘s largest producer. But that has not been nearly enough to supply its proliferating steel mills. So imports have been growing by leaps and bounds too, from 148m tonnes in 2003 to 375m tonnes last year. They now account for half the world‘s seaborne trade in iron ore. Citigroup, an investment bank, estimates that they will rise to almost 900m tonnes by 2014. And over the past few years it and other banks have had to revise such estimates upwards several times, as demand has consistently exceeded expectations.
Shougang, for example, owns a mine in Hebei, conveniently close to its mills. But that does not provide enough ore for all of them, and other domestic supplies are scarce, so the firm has had to look overseas to make up the shortfall. It bought a mine in Peru in the 1990s and a stake in an Australian one in 2006. In addition to imports from both of those, it also buys ore on the international market. Its new mill is being built on the coast partly to provide easier access for such imports.
Much the same story could be told about many other commodities. Name almost any mineral, and mining firms and investment banks can produce charts depicting how Chinese demand has doubled or tripled since the beginning of this decade. Last year China‘s copper imports surged by 80%.
China is also importing ever more food. This is partly because more and more farmland is being given over to industry and partly because the population is growing. Moreover, as China becomes richer, its citizens are eating more meat, which contributes to rising food imports: producing meat for people to eat takes more grain than feeding people on cereals.
想要了解中国对于自然资源的需求增长的有多快，去参观北京郊区的首钢集团吧。轧钢机的故事反映了中国工业不平静的历史。这是中国最早的企业之一，始建于1919年。1949年共产党取得政权之后被国有化，首钢就成为展示中华人民共和国的成就的橱窗。
脚步紧随邓小平的改革开放，首钢已 经从一个中央计划的典型转变成为一个冷血的资本主义清道夫。从前，工厂是个城中之城，包括你可以想象的来自工人的天堂的 一切臭架子。它仍然有自己的报纸，电视台，以及在8平方公里厂区内运送工人的内部巴士服务。但是公司已经裁员18万，并且计划在缩减6万，只留下2万个工 作岗位。它为深圳和香港股市的投资者回报五厘息金，再把收益用于更大更好的设备上面。它生产的钢材被用在许多中国家喻户晓的建设工程，包括三峡大坝，古怪的国家大剧院“鸟蛋”以及横跨上海黄浦江的高耸的吊桥。
但是，首钢主体工厂 的搬迁不会长时间削弱公司的产出。与另外一家中国钢铁公司合作，首钢准备建设一个更大的工厂，建在渤海湾东南约220公里（140海 里）的河北省的一个人工岛上面。这个工厂的初始产能几乎达到1000万吨。由于在河北要布局另外两个工厂，首钢正在把产出从2003年的600万吨提高到 2010年的至少2000万吨。一位发言人表示更长远的发展目标正在制定，而不久之后产出可能会达到3000万吨之多。当被问及首钢因何认为会有需求这么 多钢材的市场的时候，他看起来迷惑不解。中国增长的如此之快，他说，首钢的产品毫无疑问会有销路。
有许多公司做出类似的假设。2006年，中国钢铁公司按产量排名，首钢仅位列第九。中国总共有7000家钢 铁企业，这一数字是2002年的两倍。去年钢产 量增加15%，与2006年的增速基本持平。自从2000年以来，中国的产出是之前的三倍，以占世界总产出的37%而成为全球最大的生产者。2000年到 2005年间，中国占世界钢铁产量增长的四分之三。
中国国内铁矿石的产量是2003年的两倍还多，又让这个国家成为全球最大的生产者。然而， 这还是远不够供应国内激增的钢铁工厂。所以，进口也是飞跃性地增 长，从2003年的1.48亿吨到去年的3.75亿吨。现在中国贡献了铁矿石海运贸易的一半。花旗集团（一家投资银行）估计，到2014年中国的进口将增 加到9亿吨。而过去几年，随着需求量不断超出预期，花旗与其他银行不得不数次调高估计。
例如首钢，在河北有一座铁矿，靠 近工厂，非常方便。但是无法为所有轧钢厂提供足够多的矿石，而其他国内供应商极为稀少，所以公司只能放眼海外以弥补短缺。 1990年代首钢在秘鲁购买了一座矿山，又在2006年控股了一家澳大利亚矿山。除了从这两个地方进口之外，首钢还从国际市场上购买矿石。其新工厂建在海 边，部分提供了这些进口的便利。
许多其他商品都可以讲述极为类似的故事。涵盖几乎所有的矿产，而且采矿企业及投资银行都可以画出描述中国的需求怎样从世纪初以来增长一倍或者两倍的曲线图。去年中国铜进口激增了80%。
中国还进口了前所未有的粮食。这部分由于越来越多的耕地转化为工业用地，部分由于人口的增加。此外，随着中国越来越富裕，人民消费跟多的肉类，而这导致了食品进口的增加：为人民生产食用的肉类所需要的粮食比用谷类养育人民要多得多。
China is determined to make the most of its own limited resources
The customers are waiting
TO SEE just how quickly China‘s demand for natural resources is growing, visit Shougang Group, on the outskirts of Beijing. The story of the mill mirrors the chequered history of Chinese industry. This is one of the country‘s oldest firms, founded in 1919. Nationalised after the Communist takeover in 1949, it was turned into a showcase for the achievements of the People‘s Republic. Pictures of assorted party bigwigs donning hard hats and greeting the workers adorn the walls. During the Great Leap Forward, Zhou Enlai visited the mill to celebrate its bounding output; in the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping came as part of his drive for “socialism with Chinese characteristics”, meaning capitalism with a dose of state ownership.
In keeping with Deng‘s reforms, Shougang has transformed itself from a model of central planning into a cold-blooded capitalist roader. In the old days the mill was a city within a city, complete with all the frills you would expect from a workers‘ paradise. It still has its own newspaper and television station, and an internal bus service to ferry workers around its eight-square-kilometre compound. But the company has already shed 180,000 workers and plans to trim 60,000 more, leaving just 20,000. It has offered shares in five subsidiaries to investors on the stockmarkets in Shenzhen and Hong Kong and spent the proceeds on bigger and better facilities. Its steel has been used in many of China‘s best-known construction projects, including the Three Gorges dam, Beijing‘s curious egg-shaped opera house and a soaring suspension bridge that spans the Huangpu river in Shanghai.
At the furnaces in the centre of the compound, sparks shower down as a mechanical shovel fills a red-hot crucible with coal and iron ore; molten steel pours from another. A temperature gauge reads 1,127°C. Last year the mill turned out 8m tonnes of steel. But later this year it will close, a casualty of the drive to improve Beijing‘s air quality for the Olympics.
The demise of Shougang Steel‘s main plant, however, will not dent the firm‘s output for long. In conjunction with another Chinese steel firm, it is on the verge of opening an even bigger mill, on an artificial island in the Bohai Gulf in Hebei province, about 220km (140 miles) to the south-east. This will have an initial capacity of almost 10m tonnes. What with the expansion of two other mills in Hebei, Shougang is on course to increase its output from 6m tonnes in 2003 to at least 20m tonnes by 2010. A spokesman says further development is already in the works, and output might reach as much as 30m tonnes soon after. Asked whether the firm is confident that there will be a market for all this steel, he looks puzzled. China is growing so fast, he says, that there is no problem selling anything Shougang produces.
There are many more businesses making similar assumptions. Shougang ranked only ninth by output among China‘s steelmakers in 2006. In all, the country has 7,000 of them, twice the number in 2002. Steel production rose by 15% last year, much the same rate of growth as in 2006. Since 2000, China has roughly tripled its output, making it by far the world‘s biggest producer, with 37% of global output. It accounted for about three-quarters of the global growth in steel production between 2000 and 2005.
China‘s domestic production of iron ore has more than doubled since 2003, again making the country the world‘s largest producer. But that has not been nearly enough to supply its proliferating steel mills. So imports have been growing by leaps and bounds too, from 148m tonnes in 2003 to 375m tonnes last year. They now account for half the world‘s seaborne trade in iron ore. Citigroup, an investment bank, estimates that they will rise to almost 900m tonnes by 2014. And over the past few years it and other banks have had to revise such estimates upwards several times, as demand has consistently exceeded expectations.
Shougang, for example, owns a mine in Hebei, conveniently close to its mills. But that does not provide enough ore for all of them, and other domestic supplies are scarce, so the firm has had to look overseas to make up the shortfall. It bought a mine in Peru in the 1990s and a stake in an Australian one in 2006. In addition to imports from both of those, it also buys ore on the international market. Its new mill is being built on the coast partly to provide easier access for such imports.
Much the same story could be told about many other commodities. Name almost any mineral, and mining firms and investment banks can produce charts depicting how Chinese demand has doubled or tripled since the beginning of this decade. Last year China‘s copper imports surged by 80%.
China is also importing ever more food. This is partly because more and more farmland is being given over to industry and partly because the population is growing. Moreover, as China becomes richer, its citizens are eating more meat, which contributes to rising food imports: producing meat for people to eat takes more grain than feeding people on cereals.