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Production of powered irrigation equipment is basically an assembly process involving pumps and diesel engines, whose production is discussed elsewhere. Since 1967 the Chinese have assigned this assembly to the local governments. All provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions have their own plants.

China averages about 6 million to 7 million horsepower per year in output of powered irrigation equipment, nearly 10 times the 640,000 horsepower produced in 1963. The national inventory of such equipment (total horsepower currently in use) reached 20 million horsepower in 1971, 30 million in 1973, and 40 million in 1975, but only 47 million by 1977. The recent slowdown in inventory growth may be due to production setbacks and to an increased level of depreciation of older equipment.

I. General Industrial Machinery

China produces a broad range of general industrial machinery, including pumps and compressors, blowers and fans, ball and roller bearings, gas turbines, and motors and welding equipment. This equipment covers a wide range of technologies extending from simple irrigation pumps manufactured at local plants to the complex units found in chemical processing industries. Except for selected priority areas, technology lags at least 20 years behind the Western state-of-the-art. China thus must import both: (a) Specific equipment items; and (b) complete plants to manufacture general industrial machinery such as high pressure centrifugal compressors, roller and ball bearings, and machinery and equipment for manufacturing gas turbines.

1. PUMPS, COMPRESSORS, AND BLOWERS

China manufactures a variety of centrifugal and axial pumps for use in agriculture, the chemical industry, and in power stations. A large share of pump production goes for irrigation purposes. These are mostly shallow-well pumps driven by electic motor or small diesel engines. Deep-well pumps and pumps for the mining and petroleum industries are in short supply and have to be imported. The Shanghai Pump Factory is the leading producer. Other large producers are located in Peking, Shen-yang, Chang-sha, and Fo-shun.

Chinese compressors have a broad range of industrial applications. Air compressors generally fall into two categories, those which have agricultural and relatively light industrial application and those which are used in the transportation, construction, and other heavy industrial sectors. The majority of compressors are built for use primarily in agriculture for spraying pecticides. Many intermediate size compressors are used to supply compressed air for pneumatic tools and machines. More powerful compressors are employed in mining and chemical processing.

Major compressor manufacturing plants are located in Shanghai, Nan-king, Wu-shi, Peking, Chung-king, Canton, Shen-yang, Pang-pu, Kuei-yang, and Shao-kuan. The Shanghai facility produces a wide variety of equipment including mobile and air compressors for use in oil refining. Industrial blowers are manufactured at Chang-sha,

Shanghai, Shen-yang, Peking, and Tientsin; this equipment has wide application in the mining, petrochemical and metallurgical industries.

2. BALL AND ROLLER BEARINGS

Production of bearings has expanded only slightly since the infusion of Soviet equipment and technology in the 1950's. Production probably totals 50-80 million sets per year, far short of installed capacity. While the ball bearing is the most common variety, China also produces spherical and cylindrical roller bearings, needle bearings, and sliding bearings. As for quality control, standard Chinese practice is to select out the better berings for strategic and priority needs and to relegate the substandard bearings to less crucial applications.

Half of the bearing production can be attributed to 30 medium-tolarge scale plants; the biggest plants are located in Lo-yang, Harbin, Wa-fang-tien, Peking, and Shanghai. The larger plants generally produce higher grade and specialized bearings for national and regional distribution; 50 or so smaller plants provide a local source of supply for bearings needed in agricultural equipment, transport, and light industry.

Standard grade production requirements are transferred to the smaller plants as the larger plants improve their capabilities. Large plants also provide training and equipment in the establishment of local sources of production. For example, the Lo-yang Bearing Plant in 1972 was reported to have built 11 small bearing plants, in farm areas, equipped 20 more, and trained 300 skilled workers for these plants.

The lack of adequate machine tools, qualified engineers, and limited technology has prompted China to make large scale purchases of ball and roller bearings from Japan, West Germany, France, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. Moreover, China has purchased a number of complete production facilities from abroad, including the manufacturing know-how. In addition, China has been seeking selected pieces of bearings, forging, and metalworking machinery to enhance domestic production capabilities.

3. GAS TURBINES

In 1974, the Shanghai steam turbine plant trial produced the first 6-megawatt turbine for power use. Prior to this, the Nanking steam turbine generator plant announced the trial manufacture of a 1-megawatt mobile gas turbine generator unit. In 1971, the Chinese claimed that a 3,000 horsepower gas turbine locomotive had been trial manufactured. The Chinese also announced in January 1978 the trial manufacture of a 4,000 horsepower gas turbine locomotive which was made at the Chang-chun locomotive plant; this may be the same engine with additional improvements.

The PRC gained considerable expertise in gas turbine technology by buying foreign equipment and manufacturing know-how. Gas turbines for power generation purposes have been imported from Belgium, Canada, Japan, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Also, the Chinese are acquiring considerable know-how in the $200 million

contract with the United Kingdom for Spey aircraft engine manufacturing technology. Purchases of special purpose machine tools that have unique application in the gas turbine manufacturing area have also been stepped up.

Industrial gas turbines have wide application in pipeline compression stations, in utility power units on oil rigs, and in power generation at remote oilfields. The electric power industry employs gas turbine generating units to meet the peak power needs of major industrial centers. Requirements for gas turbines also exist in the transportation sector for aviation engines, engines for off-highway vehicles, and high-speed marine engines. Development of most types of gas turbines is still in its infancy in China; it may be 5 years or more before gas turbine production is well established.

4. MOTORS

China produces a broad range of electrical machinery and equipment for industrial application, including motors, generators, welding machines, and various types of capacitors and rectifying units. General purpose motors and generators are fairly extensively produced for use in agriculture and industry and for export.

When China started exporting general purpose motors in 1958, the JO series standard induction motor was the only export model. China is now able to supply alternating current motors, direct current motors, fractional horsepower motors, clutch-driven motors, and oilpump-type motors in 27 series and over 600 variants. Motor ratings range from 100 horsepower for instruments and meters to 2,000 horsepower units for steel rolling, metallurgy, and marine operations. China also produces four series of single-phase and three-phase synchronous generators for export, as well as diesel generating sets ranging from 5-120 kilowatts.

A large share of China's motor and generator output comes from plants producing heavy power generation equipment, although many specialty plants are scattered throughout China. The Harbin electrical machinery plant, for example, produces a variety of motors and generators, including 10,000 kilowatt alternating current units and 500 kilowatt direct current units. The Shanghai electrical machinery plant can produce large, medium, and small direct current generators with capacities of 50,000-60,000 kilowatt, 500-600 kilowatt, and 50-60 kilowatt. Numerous specialty plants producing miniaturized as well as standard size motors are scattered throughout the country. As in other areas of power generation equipment development, China has had difficulty in producing large-capacity high speed motors of medium weight and low moment of inertia. Equipment of this type has been manufactured in the West for many years and is representative of a country's progress in the industrial power equipment industry.

5. WELDING EQUIPMENT

Welding equipment has wide application in China's machinebuilding industry. Buildings, bridges, pressure vessels, piping, ships, and other transportation vehicles, rockets, and television sets all use

welded joints. The arc welding process accounts for much of China's welding equipment manufacture. Major plants producing such equipment, for domestic use as well as for export, are located in Cheng-tung, Chu-chou, Kuei-yang, Shanghai, Shen-yang, and Tientsin.

The Shanghai electrical welding machinery factory is a leading manufacturer and developer of welding equipment in China and has trial produced several types of advanced welding equipment. The plant serially produces automatic and semiautomatic arc welders, spot and seam resistance welders, electroslag welding machines, vacuum electron-beam equipment, ultrasonic and high-frequency devices, and fusion-cutting apparatus. In addition, China produces some flash welding equipment and cold pressure welders.

6. STORAGE AND DRY BATTERIES

Nearly every province and major municipality has at least one dry battery plant, and storage batteries are produced in most major industrial centers. In recent years, there has been considerable advance in the variety and types of batteries produced and in their efficiency and performance. China is a major exporter of batteries, including 6 volt and 12 volt units suitable for heavy and light trucks, buses, cars, and motorcycles.

J. Special Industrial Machinery

China produces a broad range of special industrial machinery for the food products industry, textile industry, woodworking and paper industries, printing trades industry, plastic and rubber industries, and the chemical industries. With the possible exception of the textile equipment industry, most of the equipment produced is simple in design and lacks the sophisticated quality control and automation devices common to Western machinery. Most of the special industrial machinery produced in China is used domestically; attempts have been made to export the machinery in volume, particularly to Southeast Asia and other Third World areas.

In the food-processing area China has had little, if any, capability to manufacture the modern packaging and labeling equipment needed to effectively compete with major world suppliers of packaged food products. While the number of canneries in China has increased considerable over the past several years, the machinery installed is obsolete by Western standards. Efforts to upgrade the food packaging industry were strengthened in 1974 when China established the National Export Commodities Packaging Corp. within the Ministry of Foreign Trade. The organization has primary responsibility for importing packaging machinery and related technology. In addition, several Chinese packaging equipment delegations have visited Western manufacturing facilities, and foreign delegations have been invited to China to present seminars on Western packaging techniques.

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1. Rural energy flows in China in 1974..

2. Typical Szechwanese biogas digester.

3. China's major coalfields..

4. China's major oilfields_-_.

5. World's leading energy-consuming nations--

6. Commercial energy flow pattern for China in 1974__

TABLES

1. Primary productivity of China's major vegetation units.

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2. Useful work performed by China's draft animals in 1974-

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3. Availability of food energy in China in 1974.

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4. Calculation of food energy requirements for the Chinese population in 1974.

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5. Estimates of China's crude oil reserves..

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6. Regional distribution of China's energy resources.

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7. Sectoral consumption of primary energy in China, 1950-76-

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8. China's consumption of primary energy by sector and source in 1974..

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*Vaclav Smil is with the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

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