Zhanjiang Mayor Wang Zhongbing views the construction of the Baosteel Zhanjiang Steel plant, whose first phase goes into operation on Sept 25, as not only a major economic driver for the city but a source of increased personal income for residents of Donghai Island.

Donghai Island, where the Baosteel plant is located, formerly produced primarily agricultural products, Wang said, but 2,400 farmers from the island have been trained to work at the plant.

"This will greatly increase the income of island residents and also be very good for their families," he said.

The first phase of the project marks its completion this week, when the first of its blast furnaces will be ignited. Wang, who himself worked on a blast furnace 30 years ago, said the plant would be a model for China's iron and steel industry.

"The output of China's iron and steel has ranked first in the world for many years," he said. "This industry is also the main one for China to carry out its industrial transformation."

The deep harbor gives cost and logistics advantages to Zhanjiang Baosteel, Wang said, both in importing raw materials and exporting finished products.

"Zhanjiang is in the center of the market in this industry," he said. The Zhanjiang steel base is the nearest steel plant to the Guangdong market and also the nearest to Asian countries. The target markets are both domestic and other Asian countries."

In addition, exporting finished products to the south of China, Southeast Asia and beyond would be convenient and cost-effective.

"To summarize, the Zhanjiang iron and steel base has comprehensive competitiveness."

The base has also been designed to be environmentally friendly, removing heavy metals, dioxins, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide in the sintering process.

The Baosteel Group has earmarked about one-eighth of its 50 billion yuan ($7.85 billion) total expenditure for the project for environmental protections, including the recycling of water after use and reusing waste products in other processes.

"Zhanjiang steel and iron base is green and has very low carbon emissions, and is a recycling plant," Wang said. "We hope this modern iron and steel plant will become a model of China's iron and steel industry transformation and structural transformation."

In addition, he said, referring to the thousands of workers who have learned new skills to work at the plant, it would "also be a model for transformation from an agricultural civilization to an industrial civilization".

Contact the writer at traciebarrett@gmail.com