The Pudong Iron & Steel Factory, run by China's biggest steel giant, the Baosteel Group, is moving to a new site to make way for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

More than 10 billion yuan (US$1.2billion), mainly coming from Baosteel's coffers, is to be spent on construction and preparing the new site for production, insiders revealed.

The new site will cover a total area of more than 2.82 square kilometres, an increase on the current site which takes up 2.18 square kilometres.

Facilities will be totally removed from the old site by the end of 2006 with first-stage construction at the new site including one mill, one revolving furnace , one 100 ton electronic furnace, and two continuous casting machines to be completed in 2007.

Top-level managers at the Baosteel Group have said they will take this opportunity to upgrade facilities to the world's most advanced technological standards, making the new plant "more environmentally-friendly" than its predecessor.

Xie Qihua, chairwoman of the Baosteel Group, said: "The moving of Pudong Iron & Steel Factory will not only substantially support construction for Shanghai's World Expo 2010, but also enhance the production capacity of the factory on its new site."

After the first stage of the site is finished production capacity will exceed 1.5 million tons of pig iron.

Baosteel's technological experts said the amount of waste discharged will be greatly reduced.  

(China Daily)

furnace: an enclosed chamber in which heat is produced to heat buildings, destroy refuse, smelt or refine ores, etc.（熔爐）

slacken: to make or become slack; reduce in activity, force, or in tightness（放松，松弛）