The ****trait of an Scrambling "Olympic Host" -- In China, Scramble
Continues in Coal Country
The New York Times
February 9, 2008
In China, Scramble Continues in Coal Country
By JIM YARDLEY
DATONG, China ¡ª At the mouth of the Tashan mine, one of the largest coal
mines in China, men in hard hats waited to begin another ****ft a quarter
mile underground. Lunch break was over. Their faces were smeared with
black coal dust as a dingy white truck carried them down an underground
road to the floor of the mine.
¡°We¡¯re working pretty much all the time,¡± said a man with a small lamp
hooked around his neck before he climbed onto the truck and disappeared
into the dark tunnel.
In China, Thursday marked the Lunar New Year and ushered in the Year of
the Rat. For Chinese families, especially those of migrant workers, the
holiday offers an annual op****tunity to reunite. Yet for miners here in
coal country, Thursday was just another workday. Vacations have been
canceled. China is too desperate for coal to allow them a day off.
This Lunar New Year will always be remembered in China as the Year of
the Storm. Freak snow and ice storms left millions of people without
power in southern China, stranded millions of migrant workers trying to
get home and exposed the fragility of the country¡¯s trans****tation
system and power grid.
The crisis is now abating, but the storm also underscored China¡¯s heavy
dependence on coal and laid bare the inadequacy of the country¡¯s system
of producing, pricing and distributing coal to power plants. China is
fueled by coal, which accounts for 80 percent of its electricity. But
China has shown itself to be one unexpectedly large storm away from
major problems.
¡°What this storm has exposed is that coal is the backbone of China¡¯s
energy supply, and the market is currently tightly balanced,¡± said Zhang
Chi, a director at the Beijing office of Cambridge Energy Research
Associates. ¡°Any disruption may have serious impacts on the economy and
on people¡¯s daily lives.¡±
Faced with electricity shortages in more than half the country, the
Communist Party responded with an old-style mobilization campaign.
Roughly two million military personnel were mobilized to provide relief
aid, help restore power and get trains moving again so that many, if
hardly all, the stranded migrant workers could get home by Thursday.
Last week, President Hu Jintao visited the Tashan mine and ordered all
state-owned mines to produce more coal, and produce it faster, in order
to guarantee supply for power plants in the south. China¡¯s central
planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, stated
that certain closed mines would be allowed to reopen to help meet demand.
But the short-term emphasis on production glossed over the complexity of
the coal situation and raised questions about whether the government was
signaling that unsafe mines could now be reopened. China has the world¡¯s
most dangerous mines, and the government has closed thousands of small
mines since 2006 in an effort to reduce fatalities by consolidating the
industry into larger, more efficient operations.
Last year, the number of mining fatalities dropped by one-fifth to 3,786
deaths, still the highest figure in the world. This week, officials in
Beijing insisted that the government¡¯s new announcements were not a
retreat from its safety priorities. But the Chinese media quickly found
operators of closed mines who were recruiting workers and trying to
reopen. Meanwhile, 21 miners died in two separate accidents last week,
an ominous development for an industry suddenly operating at full
throttle.
For decades, Datong has been one of China¡¯s busiest coal capitals and is
known for producing the higher quality coal used in power plants. The
region is dominated by the Datong Coal Mining Group, one of the
country¡¯s largest state-owned mining cor****ations, with more than
200,000 employees. In his visit, Mr. Hu descended to the floor of the
Tashan mine in a spotless mining jacket and exhorted black-faced miners
to dig out of patriotic duty.
Practically speaking, Mr. Hu¡¯s directive has meant that the state-owned
mines are working overtime. At one of Datong Coal Group¡¯s other main
mines, the regular quota is 150,000 tons of coal a month, according to
one worker. But officials are now asking workers to quadruple that
figure to 600,000 tons for February.
¡°We¡¯ll do it,¡± said Wang Kuikui, 53, who has worked in the mine for 27
years. ¡°We¡¯ll get 600,000 tons.¡±
Mr. Wang usually gets three days off for the Lunar New Year, but his
leave is now canceled. He earns about $200 a month and lives near the
mine in a mud-and-brick, two-room home with his wife, son,
daughter-in-law and grandson. And Mr. Wang is considered fortunate
because he has a job at a larger, safer state-owned operation. His son
cannot get a job at the same mine and makes money doing odd jobs.
At the Hudong freight yard, the tracks are jammed with trains
trans****ting 200 or more coal cars eastward to the ****t city of
Qinhuangdao. From there, the coal is loaded onto ****ps and taken to
power stations in the south.
¡°My holiday is canceled,¡± said one railroad repairman named Mr. Cheng,
who is living at the freight yard instead of returning home to his
family. ¡°We¡¯re working here straight through for the next two weeks.
However much coal they can produce, we¡¯ll find a way to move it.¡±
Mr. Hu¡¯s directive focused exclusively on the large state-owned mines
that dominate the landscape around Datong and elsewhere in surrounding
Shanxi Province. Yet from one hilltop outside Datong, the view of the
bleak, pocked landscape also revealed smaller operations tucked into
ravines and gullies. Some of these mines lack required approvals but are
protected by local officials in exchange for a financial stake.
This year, Shanxi Province is trying to carry out central government
policies and close all mines that produce fewer than 90,000 tons of coal
a year. But it is unclear if more stringent plans to close mines that
produce fewer than 300,000 tons will go forward in light of the shortages.
A Chinese journalist who focuses on mining estimated that there were
thousands of illegal mines operating in Shanxi Province despite central
government edicts. Often, these mines enable the country to meet rising
demand for coal as the economy continues to grow at double-digit rates.
But while the largest mines use sophisticated mechanized diggers, some
small mines use mules to haul coal.
On the same day that Mr. Hu visited the Tashan mine, Li Shuangwei was
discharged from a small hospital that treats injured miners. Mr. Li, 26,
had worked in four small mines since October 2006, earning about $10 a
day. With both his parents deceased, he chose mining because it paid
more than construction work. He said he needed money to help his brother
pay for medical treatment for seizures.
On Jan. 17, Mr. Li was knocked unconscious when a poorly sup****ted
ceiling in the mine collapsed on him. He awoke to find himself being
dragged out of the mine atop a rickshaw and then carried to the
hospital. ¡°My stomach hurt,¡± he recalled. ¡°I couldn¡¯t breathe. I was
bleeding inside my chest.¡±
Mr. Li now has a 10-inch scar on his stomach from surgery at the
hospital. He still does not know what procedures were performed or what
specific injuries he sustained. His foreman arrived at the hospital on
Jan. 31, paid the bill for the two-week stay and told Mr. Li that he
must cover any further medical costs.
¡°I just want to get better,¡± said Mr. Li, who is now living on a
construction site where his uncle is the foreman as he tries to get more
medical compensation from the local government. ¡°I can¡¯t do any work
now.¡±
Mr. Li¡¯s accident would be considered a minor one. Another man in Mr.
Li¡¯s mine lost an arm a few weeks earlier. Major accidents claiming
lives often prompt officials to close all surrounding small mines and
conduct inspections. This also creates op****tunities for corruption; the
state media occasionally publishes articles about mine owners bribing
local officials to avoid closing down.
Mr. Zhang, the energy analyst, said there was a clear correlation
between small mines and accidents, but he also noted that planners might
have underestimated the role of small mines in market supply. China will
need more and more coal in the future, even as it tries to replace
smaller, more dangerous mines with larger ones.
Experts say production is only one of the uncertainties facing China.
Electricity rationing was already under way in several provinces because
of shortages of coal reserves at power stations. Economists have partly
blamed pricing flaws for the problem; fearing inflation, the government
has capped electricity prices even though power companies must buy coal
at rising market prices. Coal reserves at power stations were already at
historic lows before the storm knocked out rail and truck deliveries.
At the Tashan mine this week, the complexities of China¡¯s coal situation
were distant problems. ¡°It¡¯s just like a normal day,¡± said one man
before he climbed onto the shuttle truck. ¡°We go down. Then we come back
up and go home.¡±
Jake Hooker and Huang Yuanxi contributed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/world/asia/09china.html
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