China Is Turning Abandoned Steel Mills Back Into Farmland

For almost a decade , China ’s burgeon brand industriousness has spue out more than ten time the sword of Japan , the mankind ’s second heavy manufacturer . But that ’s quickly change : As demand slows and China attempts to curb befoulment , amassive recessionis hit its steel state .

pulverisation closures are rack up the responsibility of Hebei — which produces just about a after part of the world ’s steel — especially hard , with dozens of mills closing within the last yr . Forbes calls it “ the world ’s next rust fungus belt , ” invoking the Great Depression that wreck American steel town in the 1970s and 80s . According to a report in pro - Party Global Times , the fundamental government isdemanding Hebei skip back on its production , partly due to the toxic smog the realm plays a major role in get . In fact , it may have more to do with sluggish demand , say The Wall Street Journal’sMarketwatch , since there has long been an overcapacity of steel mills in the country .

figure of speech : China Photos / Getty Images .

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But what ’s more interesting than the variation of steel prices ? What the local government in Hebei design to do with all those empty , tower steel John Mill . Many steel companies are close down grind anddiversifying in pig and Pisces farming . And some of those mills are being razed with dynamite and demolished , in an attempt to turn them back into farmland , since many mills were build on land hire from local farmers . That approach present it own problem — since the land beneath these works is now deeply toxic , and totally inapplicable for farming .

It ’s tough not to make comparisons with America ’s own brand industry . I farm up in Pittsburgh , an incredibly contaminated blade town that was hit hard after the mills closed down in the seventies . It took decades for the economic depression to lift — largely thanks to the aesculapian diligence that grow up around the University of Pittsburgh . But take a driving force through the Allegheny area , and you ’ll still receive abandoned manufactory disperse the landscape .

In other Holy Scripture , it ’s a problem with a long shelf - animation — here ’s to trust that China ’s rusting belt wo n’t meet as long as America ’s has . [ The Global Times;The Atlantic Cities ]

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